


The Stars Incline Us

by Geishaaa



Series: Astra Inclinant [1]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Alternate Universe - Avatar & Benders Setting, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Angst with a Happy Ending, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Fluff, Friendship, M/M, Prophecy, Sexual Tension, Slow Burn, Spirit Guides, Team as Family, Training, War, merfolk
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-30
Updated: 2021-02-25
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:46:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 48,831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27803263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Geishaaa/pseuds/Geishaaa
Summary: Ichigo used to love the stars. Now he hated them.They bound him to a fate he did not want.Nothing scared Ichigo Kurosaki more than being the next Avatar.
Relationships: Abarai Renji/Kuchiki Rukia, Hitsugaya Toushirou/Kurosaki Ichigo, Ichimaru Gin/Matsumoto Rangiku
Series: Astra Inclinant [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2034268
Comments: 47
Kudos: 93
Collections: IchiHitsu Ship Week and Archive, The Seireitei Server Holidays Gift Exchange 2020





	1. Air I: The Ruins of Junrinan

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Reijin_Hakumei](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reijin_Hakumei/gifts).



> It’s an ATLA crossover in terms of the world it is (very loosely) set in but you do not need to have seen it to understand this story! Alas, this chapter is a little explain-y but please stay with me.
> 
> For my loveliest Nova-bean – I hope you like this! (sorry you got stuck with me again!)  
> It’s a full IchiHitsu fantasy AU series for you! I even put in Yukio specifically for your enjoyment~

_When the night is longest, the winds show their true power. It shall be then, when the moon turns blue and a new star joins the night sky, the Avatar will conquer or perish. Remember, the power of only one element can bring peace._

Small pebbles crunched under their feet as they walked along the empty beach. The wind was chilling to the bone, ice cold and stinging on Ichigo’s skin. The ocean was calm on his left, and gentle waves pushed their way up the rocky shores with the incoming tide that would wash away the group’s footprints, if there were any. To his right, lush green fields stretched back to the mountains they had come from. Long grass swayed in the breeze but it was quiet, almost eerily so. 

Ichigo wasn’t surprised at the dissonant stillness and lack of life, however; they were in the old Water Kingdom territory now.

“The stars are pretty tonight, don’t you think?”

Ichigo rolled his eyes, hearing Renji’s words and Rukia’s slight giggle behind him. They were walking a few steps behind and flirting terribly under hushed tones.

Night had fallen but it wasn’t dark, the moon and stars too bright that evening. Their shine was mockingly cheerful, a sight that was supposed to be beautiful but was only a hindrance – _a threat even._

Ichigo used to love the stars. Now he hated them.

They bound him to a fate he did not want.

Nothing scared Ichigo Kurosaki more than being the next Avatar.

He didn’t ask for it. He didn’t want it.

He especially didn’t want it now, nine years into the worst war the world had ever seen, a war that was practically already won by their enemies, the Water Kingdom.

The burden was heavy on his shoulders, certainly heavier than his knapsack which only caused him mild back strain. He shouldn’t have had the responsibility of being the Avatar on his head – he was just a kid, after all.

Nineteen and gangly, but a kid nonetheless.

“Damned stars,” he muttered quietly as he walked along the shoreline, and he kicked a small rock up the beach for good measure.

Renji snorted, interrupting Ichigo’s muttered complaints. “Yeah the damned stars that gave you the power of bending all four elements.”

Ichigo sighed sufferingly. They’d had this argument before, many times.

“For the last time,” Ichigo gritted his teeth. “I _can’t_ bend all four elements. I can only bend air.”

Element benders were rare, just not in this particular trio. Renji was one, an Earthbender, while Rukia could Waterbend. Ichigo was a bender too, not that anyone was surprised. His father had been a Firebender, his mother a bender of air, and Ichigo had skewed air. 

Or so they had thought.

He had loved being an Airbender, and he still did. But when the Elder Monks travelled down from their mountain temples to meet him, no one could deny what he was; the new Avatar, a person capable of bending all four elements, a person capable of entering the ‘Avatar State’ and causing mass destruction.

They were said to be chosen by the Gods, one person per lifetime, and the Avatar’s role was to maintain peace between the four continents – the Fire State, the Air Realm, the Water Kingdom and the Earth Empire.

Well, the last Avatar had failed; a man named Zangetsu. The Avatar had been killed before the war had even broken out, the Water King clearly buying himself some more time before another Avatar would be ready.

Tag, and Ichigo was it – the next Avatar, one that was surely bound to fail just as terribly, one that was never going to be ready.

Nothing terrified him more.

“Yeah, yeah” Renji chuckled. He was a good friend, just not an empathetic one. “Quit complaining. You’re the most powerful being on the planet, live a little.”

Ichigo bit his tongue and continued on walking as Rukia caught up to him. She patted his arm sympathetically, her violet irises saying she understood, but her mouth saying nothing.

Ichigo had known Renji for the better part of four years. He was strong and loyal, but Gods was he an ass. He was originally from the Earth Empire, but his accent wasn’t obvious. He had been homeless as a young teenager, and kicked from the great city of Hueco Mundo, the Earth Empire’s grand, albeit snobby, capital.

“Tell me you’re not buying the whole ‘the stars are pretty tonight’ crap?” Ichigo whispered to her.

Rukia sent Ichigo a small smirk then, smart enough not to answer that. She nodded her head forward, as if to say ‘come on’.

They walked on, over the rocky shores.

They had been walking for hours – well, years really, but it had been three days since they left their last hideaway. Ichigo had liked that one, actually. Up in the mountains, where the air was fresher, where the trees were peaceful. They could have lived their lives out there, and no one would have ever found them. For a month, it had been good. They had healed, rested, and overcome illness. They had fed and trained without fear of capture.

It was tempting to Ichigo, to run away and never have to deal with being the Avatar. Unfortunately, the stars bound him, and fate had him by the neck. The Gods looked down on him from above, and they laughed.

Ichigo had no choice but to serve them, and eventually master all four elements. He had to learn them in the order of the Avatar Cycle – air first, fire second, then earth, and finally _water._ That meant he had to find his father first. Only Isshin could teach him Firebending – he was a true a master, a captain in the Fire State’s army before-

Before he was captured by the Water King.

_“When will you be home again, Dad?”_

_“When the war is won, Son. Stay strong for me. I love you, Kiddo.”_

_“I love you too, Dad.”_

He hadn’t seen his father in nine years, and everyday got harder than the last. He had hope though, that Isshin was still out there somewhere. Hope was a dangerous thing, but Ichigo had to hold on to it. It was more than he had for the fates of the rest of his family.

_“Take care of your mother and sisters.”_

_“I will, Dad.”_

Ichigo swallowed and walked on. His legs moved, as his heart clenched.

This war had torn his family apart. It had torn the whole world apart.

It had started when the Water Kingdom attacked, deciding expand their territory to the _entire globe._

For the first few months of the war, the other nations struggled to fight back. Earth, Air and Fire united to defend what was theirs. For a fleeting moment, the tides turned as the Fire Army closed in on the Water capital but a tsunami of terror returned.

The Water King was usurped by his own son.

Gin Ichimaru was psychotic – he had killed own his family to take the throne. He craved power, and his war path was far clearer than that of his predecessor; _kill anyone and everyone to get to the top._

It didn’t do his people any good; three years ago, in an episode of his own paranoia and madness, King Ichimaru turned on his own people. He didn’t need them anymore. Ichimaru sat on the throne in Hueco Mundo, now controlling the entire Earth Empire, now using their armies. The Water Kingdom fell; their civilians were eradicated, Ichimaru only sparing his most loyal soldiers. The survivors – if any – lived in hiding, or in Earth Empire prisons.

And so they should.

Ichigo spat harshly on the rocks as they passed. Beside him, Rukia tensed.

Ichigo sighed, he hadn’t meant to startle her, and reached out to squeeze her shoulder reassuringly; Rukia didn’t relax under his hand and he supposed he couldn’t blame her.

Being that she was a Waterbender, Ichigo had found it hard to accept her friendship, though she had certainly earned it over the years. Ichigo _hated_ the Water Kingdom people, civilians or not, but especially the benders that helped make up their terrifying armies. He had made his peace with Rukia, after she and Renji had found him and she had healed his injuries all those years ago. It had been hard to accept – a surviving Waterbender as one of his two only allies – but he had to grudgingly admit that Rukia was not evil like the rest of her people. She used her bending to heal, not using it for combat unless in desperate self-defence.

Her name, however, was too hard for Ichigo to swallow. Kuchiki. She was the younger sister of the Water Kingdom’s Captain in the Southern Territory, Byakuya Kuchiki. He was vile. He had led the attack on Karakura, Ichigo’s home – his sanctuary. It had been a small village on neutral territory, popular with passing nomads, but most of the people living there were Air citizens, like Ichigo’s mother. Byakuya Kuchiki’s attack killed everyone in the village that day, except for Ichigo. His mother and younger sisters hadn’t survived, and truth be told, a part of Ichigo had died there with them.

Rukia never spoke of her brother. Ichigo never spoke of him either.

He was dead now, and that’s all that mattered. Gin Ichimaru was the real Water Kingdom enemy; he was evil to his core.

By comparison, the Air Lord and Earth Emperor were good men. Well, they _had been_ good men. Ichimaru had seen to their elimination. Aizen, the fair and kind leader of the Air Realm, and Tosen, the blind and calm Earth Emperor had perished, and with them so had the hopes of their people. The Earth Empire had been captured by Ichimaru, and Air Realm was under attack immediately after, leaving the people floundering. Some escaped, like Ichigo had, but many hadn’t been so lucky.

The only surviving leader on the side of good was the Fire Commander, old man Yamamoto. He was ancient, but Ichigo had grown up on the stories of his heroics. Yamamoto currently held the Seireitei, the Fire State’s busy capital. It was the impossible for Ichimaru – an impenetrable city with high walls. It was where many refugees had escaped to; it was where Yamamoto was building up his forces, readying to strike a counter attack on their enemies.

It was where Ichigo’s little guerrilla gang was headed – _eventually._ Ichigo didn’t want to be the Avatar, but he would do whatever he could to stop Ichimaru, and bring peace back to the world.

The first step was learning Firebending from the best, and the best was Isshin Kurosaki. Ichigo’s first goal was to find his father, and so he, Rukia and Renji carried on walking.

The band of three continued along the grey shores, for hours and hours. For as long as it took to reach-

“Must be getting close,” Renji sighed, now a few steps ahead. “The stones are becoming icy.”

Ichigo glanced down, noticing the slight frost over the millions of small rocks they walked over. He nodded; they must have been getting close. After a few more minutes, they felt sleet falling on them, like weak snow.

“Junrinan should be just around this point,” Rukia murmured, consulting the map, her hands trembling slightly in the cold as she held it open, angling it under the moonlight. “In the cove.”

Ichigo nodded and they pressed on.

Junrinan was – prior to the fall of the Water Kingdom – the capital of the Water Kingdom’s Northern territory. It was made almost entirely of ice, giving it the nickname ‘Winter’s City’.

It was where the old Water King and his family lived in their grand ice palace. It was the former Crown Prince killed his own father and younger brother, stabbing them in the back quite literally. It was where Isshin had been sent with his Fire troop to fight back. It was where Isshin was captured, never to return home.

Just the thought of it made Ichigo’s blood boil, the fire in him not dormant. He was half Firebender, after all, even if he couldn’t yet manipulate flames.

Junrinan was the next point of call in Ichigo’s search for his father. He knew the Water Kingdom had captured the Fire State’s army, and they had done so in the Kingdom’s little capital. Ichigo didn’t know what had happened after that, if perhaps they had been held in prison there and been in Junrinan they day Ichimaru unleashed terror on his own people, or if he had taken them to the Earth Empire when he had conquered Hueco Mundo. Ichigo didn’t even know if his father was still alive, but he had to find out.

Rukia gasped as they rounded the corner and even Ichigo and Renji had to pause as they looked on at the once thriving Water capital.

Junrinan was in ruins.

Nestled in a deep cove, the icy hills surrounding the bay had created no haven from what must have been a vicious attack. It looked like a tornado had ripped through it.

Ichigo spotted the once grand palace easily – a large, regal structure torn apart. Some of the original turrets still stood, the crescent moon symbol of the Water Royals imprinted into the ice, but most of the royal residence had crumbled, and now lay at the base in a mess of ice boulders.

The streets and the small houses that had filled them were equally as destroyed, many nothing but debris. Boats scattered the small harbour, some half sunk, others lying sideways on the rocks. There were some that had somehow survived the damage and were rocking gently on the water, bound to the mostly destroyed central pier, and abandoned forever.

Ichigo didn’t doubt that the water was even colder than the air. It was black under the night sky, an ominous reflection.

The small city had been levelled by Gin Ichimaru alone, and now it was uninhabitable. How many hundreds of ‘innocent’ people had been killed that day?

Ichigo heard Rukia suck in a shaky breath; though her loyalty was not with her traitorous king or the Water Kingdom, it must have been hard to see the once proud capital of her territory like this. Renji clapped her shoulder but said nothing; what could any of them say?

Ichigo sighed and moved on, climbing up onto the start of the rubble to get further into the bay. He tried to push down how much these ruins made him think of what Karakura must look like now. He had to focus, he had to try and find information about where his father might have been taken when he was captured here. Behind him, he heard Rukia and Renji follow after only a small moment of delay.

They were quiet as they climbed and slipped, slowly moving higher over the incoming tide as he drew up closer on the ice rocks.

Eventually they made it into the heart of Junrinan, but they were no less climbing over rubble. Ichigo was making a jagged beeline to the palace, figuring any information about the capture of the fire army must be in there.

“Shit!” Renji hissed all of a sudden and Ichigo was ripped from his retrieve in alarm as he saw the burly redhead drop low behind an ice boulder and pull Rukia down beside him.

Without asking any questions, Ichigo followed suit and threw himself over the boulder to join them. All three of them were pressed into the side of the ice, breaths hitched, scared to make a single sound.

“What did you see?” Ichigo asked eventually, tone hushed but urgent.

They had been on the run and in hiding for four years. He knew what Renji’s ‘shit!’ meant – potential enemies were close.

“Junrinan isn’t abandoned,” Renji muttered, and carefully he poked his head around the boulder.

Ichigo and Rukia shared a tense glance before they too turned and poked their heads over the ice rock.

Ichigo saw what Renji did; smoke, only just visible under the bright moonlight, coming from the chimney of one of the still standing shack-like houses by the shore. It was barely noticeable, considering they hadn’t seen it earlier.

“Civilian squatters?” Rukia offered, voice hushed.

Occasionally they ran into squatters in abandoned or destroyed villages. They were usually harmless – just civilians trying to get out of the cold, or put a roof over their family’s heads. They weren’t always harmless however, sometimes they were looters, scavenging through the empty towns, taking what they could to sell later.

“Maybe,” Renji murmured. “But we have to assume the worst.”

The worst? Water Kingdom soldiers.

“We need to make a move,” Ichigo murmured. “If they’re soldiers, we need to get the jump on them before they know we’re here.”

“What if they’re civilians?” Rukia asked hurriedly. “We can’t hurt them if they’re innocent.”

Ichigo bit his lip from making a remark that would have definitely upset the girl (along the lines of any civilian hiding in Water Kingdom territory couldn’t be innocent). Instead, he shot Renji a look, hoping to have the bigger man on his side.

Renji regarded the smoke ebbing from chimney again, mulling over his position. For a moment, they were silent, as if hoping to hear voices to get an indication of the amount of and type of people they were dealing with. Nothing could be heard, however, just the sounds of the gently lapping water on the rocks, and the undamaged boats hitting the pier softly.

“I’m with Ichigo on this one,” Renji sighed at last as Rukia deflated slightly. “They could be guard soldiers.”

“Guarding what?” Rukia hissed. “Junrinan is nothing but rubble now.”

Renji shrugged, turning back to look at her, “It’s still the royal capital.”

“We can’t take any chances,” Ichigo added quickly, the reminder of the royals spurring him on.

He felt less sorry for Junrinan remembering it was the place where Gin Ichimaru was raised.

To say Rukia was unhappy was an understatement, and if this backfired on them, the guys were sure to be hearing about it for weeks to come. Still, if they were right, it might just save their lives.

Ichigo and Renji nodded and made to move again, climbing silently over the boulder. They edged towards the small house by the shore, barely standing beside its destroyed neighbours. Navigating over rubble and between other partially standing structures, the three of them slipped into the shadows and eventually to the shack. They hugged the walls as they moved around to the window. Ichigo poked his head around, but the curtains had been drawn. No lights were on, but the gentle flicker of a fire was now more obvious.

The three of them continued to creep around the house in total silence, reaching the front door. It was tricky to keep quiet now, as they had to step down into ankle deep water to reach the door. The shack, from the front, was partially sunk, submerged slightly with the high tide.

Ichigo and Renji stood either side of the door, preparing to burst in and attack. Rukia stood behind Renji, looking entirely uneasy with the situation.

Ichigo made the hand gestures they had learned to call the plan. He would go first, sending any occupants flying with a gush of air, and Renji would come in behind them, using his Earthbending to pin or crush, depending on what they found. Rukia was to stay out of the way – she didn’t fight, she healed and they needed her if this went wrong. It was important that they kept her safe.

Renji nodded his affirmation, and after a moment, Rukia shook her head, seemingly to herself, before she gave her nod of confirmation.

Taking a deep breath, Ichigo counted them down from three on his fingers, allowing them a moment to gear up. His last finger dropped and he charged, busting the door off its hinges with harsh push of air before he ran in after it.

He only saw darkness in the room but he felt the air shift with movement from the occupiers. Instantly we waved his arm, flinging it towards them, but before the air could send them flying, ice cold water hit Ichigo square in the chest and sent him flying back out the door. It was a blur as he spun through the air, registering vaguely Renji’s red hair disappearing inside the house to carry on the attack.

Ichigo managed to use his Airbending skills to slow himself in the air, and cushion his fall to the water. He couldn’t control it entirely with the shock he was feeling, nor the weight of his knapsack on his back, and he ended up plunging in the ice cold water, just narrowly missing the unforgiving rocks around the bay.

In an instant, something grabbed his ankle and Ichigo opened his eyes underwater, alarmed to find a human hand grasping his leg, and dark eyes staring at him from below. Even in the dark, Ichigo caught the golden hair, and then the sharpened teeth as the creature’s mouth opened in a wicked grin. Ichigo screamed, the sound nothing but a gurgle, before he was suddenly pulled up and out of the water by a strange force, his ankle slipping from the monster’s grasp. He landed harshly on the main pier as Rukia screamed his name, arriving at his side. She had used her own bending to pull him from the water, he realised. Ichigo tried to thank her between coughing up water.

“What was that?” he hissed, mentally trying to catch up. What the hell was that thing that grabbed him under the surface?!

“Water,” Rukia told him quickly, pulling him to his feet.

“Water?” Ichigo questioned, the pieces coming back together in his mind as it clicked. Rukia wasn’t talking about the monster in the water, but the fact it was a water attack that shot Ichigo out there in the first place.

And water attacks meant-

Just then a scream was heard from the house, but one that was certainly not Renji’s. It was definitely a woman’s scream, and Ichigo was up and running again. He ditched his sodden knapsack off his shoulders quickly and leapt up into the air, using his Airbending to propel himself off the ice pier and back into the ankle deep water by the front door as he rushed in behind his Earthbender friend.

The scene he walked in on had him grinding to a halt in the entrance way, and a moment later, Rukia ran into his back, stumbling back a little.

Renji, head to head with a woman whose hands were alight with fire. Renji was pushing a large rock towards her, one that had burst through the ice floorboards of the shack, and the woman was melting it from the other side, the rock slowly becoming molten between them.

At Ichigo and Rukia’s appearance, the woman took one hand off Renji’s rock and held it up to them in warning.

“Back off,” she hissed, her light blue eyes fierce, her hair as wild and orange as the flames in her hands. She looked older than them, but still very much a young woman.

Renji didn’t look ready to back down, but Rukia slipped around Ichigo and moved swiftly towards him, shoving her friend harshly off his stance, causing the rock to collapse under the woman’s fiery hands.

“They’re civilians,” Rukia hissed quickly as Renji sprung back up. “They’re not soldiers!”

Ichigo barely had time to catch up with that fact, too entranced by the fact there was a Firebender in front of him, one that might well know where the Fire armies were taken nine years ago. At Rukia’s words, the Avatar inspected the woman closer.

She was certainly no soldier. She wore no uniform, clearly had no professional training. She had fear in her blue eyes, her flaming hands still held up, unsure if she was going to be attacked again.

Only when Renji seemed to back down completely did the woman’s arms start to lower, though the fires in palms remained.

“Who are you?” she demanded.

“We’re just passing through,” Rukia assured her quickly. “We mean you no harm.”

“No harm?” the woman scoffed. “That’s not what has occurred here just now.”

That’s when Ichigo spotted the body at her feet. It was dark with nothing but the fire on the woman’s hands for light, but Ichigo could just vaguely see the pale skin of another person lying unmoving on the floor.

“We thought you might be soldiers,” Ichigo answered when Rukia seemed lost for a response. “We’ve learned not to take chances.”

“And we have learned the same,” the woman turned to him, her eyes still as ferocious, her flames growing brighter for a moment.

Ichigo saw himself in the woman then. There was someone who knew what it was like to be on the run, and in hiding. There was someone who knew to spend every day worrying she would be attacked. She was an innocent civilian, a young bender like them, spending every day of her life just trying to stay alive.

“I am trying to find my father,” Ichigo explained then, feeling himself inching closer to becoming a roasted Avatar by the second. “He was Firebender… like you.”

Those steely eyes regarded him, narrowing slightly with distrust.

“I can heal,” Rukia added then, her voice slightly pleading, still trying to squash the tension in the room. “Let me heal your friend.”

She gestured to the body on the ground between the woman’s legs, and the woman swallowed, clearly considering it.

Her eyes shot up to Renji, as if remembering him, and under Rukia’s harsh glare, Renji sighed and softened his stance, holding his hands up in surrender. Ichigo did the same when the woman turned back to him. Finally after a moment, the woman stood down to.

She shot fire back into the fireplace, allowing more light into the room, before the flames in her hands extinguished. She dropped immediately to the body beneath her, crouching over it as she tried to rouse it awake.

“Toshiro,” she murmured. “Come on, I need you to wake up.”

Rukia moved quickly to the other side of the body as Ichigo stepped around them to get a better look too.

It was a boy, one that had to be around their age, perhaps a little younger. He was small in stature, his hair whiter than any snow Ichigo had ever seen. Limp, eyes closed, but breathing as Rukia’s magic water healing began over the gash on his head that was bleeding heavily.

“If you’re a Firebender…” Renji muttered to the woman, coming to watch beside Ichigo as he too gazed down at the boy who was finally starting to stir, groaning softly. “Then he’s…”

Ichigo had not forgotten why he was soaking wet, or how he had been flung from the house in the first place. He stared down at the injured boy, watching as the woman helped him sit up. The boy’s eye lids opened, revealing the most breathtaking teal irises.

They were like ice, and undoubtedly so was his heart.

Ichigo finished Renji’s sentence, feeling his fist tighten at his side.

“He’s a Waterbender.”

* * *

Waterbenders were evil. Ichigo had known that for the last nine years.

They were vile and disloyal, and as cold as the element they controlled.

Rukia was an exception, Ichigo realised, but then again, she had never used her powers for anything other than healing. She had been hurt by the Water Kingdom too, having been exiled by her evil brother.

Now, Ichigo sat across from one, and had to fight every urge to reach across and strangle him.

Toshiro was his name apparently, and he was fresh faced at only eighteen years of age. He wasn’t innocent though, as Ichigo had realised having received the brunt of his earlier attack. He used his powers for combat, and he was clearly powerful – not that he looked it currently, spaced out as he stared down into his tea instead of drinking it.

Rangiku was the woman’s name, the Firebender. Somehow they were friends, despite the facts of history.

Rangiku was chatty, like many of the Firebenders were. Stereotypically, their personalities were warm, personable, erratic and fun, but Gods _do not provoke their tempers._

She asked all about how the three of them – an Airbender, a Waterbender and an Earthbender – had become to be friends, and Rukia had done her best to explain how they had all met while on the run, all the while stepping over the dangerous topics of how they had all ended up on the run in the first place.

Eventually Rukia had asked the return question, far nicer that Ichigo would have, of how the Rangiku and Toshiro had met.

“I was orphaned when I was a teenager, and I got taken in by a childhood friend’s family,” Rangiku explained. Rangiku squeezed Toshiro gently, though the boy ignored it and the ongoing conversation. “This one’s family actually. Toshiro was only young at the time, so I became his au pair.”

“His nanny?” Renji repeated, a chuckle on his lips until Rukia elbowed him in the side.

Rangiku shrugged, “Used to be. We’re family.”

The two looked it too, not in appearance but certainly in how close they appeared to be. Toshiro hadn’t spoken yet, in fact Ichigo wasn’t convinced he was mentally _all there_ , if the vacant look in his eyes was anything to go by as he continued to stare into his tea. Still that could have been put down to the fact most Water Kingdom citizens seemed to have zero emotions as the best of times… Or perhaps the concussion he’d received thanks to Renji sending a rock straight into his forehead.

Rukia had managed to heal the injury for the most part, but still a thin scratch ran down the boy’s forehead and disappeared in his white eyebrow. Rangiku had been much friendlier after the truce was established, and she had managed to create a bigger fire to warm them all up, while Rukia managed to manipulate the water out of Ichigo’s clothes and knapsack so he was dry again.

Despite the little shack being made of ice, it was incredibly warm inside.

The five of them now sat around the fireplace, warming up and picking at a dreadful fish dish Rangiku had prepared for them. It was no wonder Toshiro was as skinny as he was, if his old au pair was serving him food like that. Ichigo didn’t feel sorry for him though, and if he was Rangiku, he would have purposely poisoned the kid by now.

“How long have you been two been in hiding?” Rukia asked then. She clutched a hot tea between her hands and blew on the steam gently.

Rangiku seemed to hesitate, glancing down at Toshiro for a moment, as if expecting a reaction from him and yet getting none.

“About three years now,” Rangiku murmured. “Since the fall of Junrinan. We’ve only returned recently.”

Toshiro moved then, lifting the tea to his lips and finally taking a sip. Ichigo’s eyes watched his every movement, not trusting a Waterbender’s hands for a moment. The boy’s hands did not shoot water out at him this time however, but they trembled as he lowered the tea cup to his lap again.

Rangiku didn’t say more than that on the matter, and Rukia seemed too uncomfortable to ask further follow up questions.

“My father was a Firebender,” Ichigo stared at Rangiku now, searching her face for answers. “He was imprisoned nine years ago after being captured here, by the Water King.”

His words were almost spat, and Rukia flinched beside him while Toshiro only tilted his head, studying his tea again.

Rangiku inhaled deeply before sighing.

“Most of the Fire troops captured that day have now been taken to Hueco Mundo, I believe,” Rangiku murmured, “to fight for the Water King...”

Her sentence was left hanging, and she seemed to regret her words instantly, silencing herself and awkwardly reaching for her own tea.

Ichigo felt the blow to his heart.

He imagined his father, imprisoned and hopeless, forced to fight for the enemy or risk being killed if he disobeyed. It crushed Ichigo’s hope significantly, because he knew his father, and he knew Isshin would have rather died than fight for an evil king.

The Avatar swallowed. No, he couldn’t think like that. He couldn’t make those assumptions. He had to at least try to find out if Isshin was still alive.

“Hueco Mundo it is,” Ichigo murmured, reaching for the map in Rukia’s lap and opening it up.

Hueco Mundo was a few weeks journey, at least.

“We’re not going there,” Renji murmured to Ichigo, speaking the exact words Ichigo didn’t want to be told. “It’s the most dangerous place on Earth right now.”

“We have to,” Ichigo gritted his teeth. “We need him.”

He was trying to be vague with his words. He didn’t want the strangers knowing what he was, he already had a big enough target on his head. Ichimaru didn’t know who the Avatar was but he knew he was out there somewhere. Last time Ichimaru had word of where to find him, Karakura had been destroyed and Ichigo’s family had been killed.

“He’s not the only Firebender out there,” Renji argued, slightly less concerned about revealing Ichigo’s identity. He gestured to Rangiku as if it was proof. The woman glanced between them, confused.

Ichigo shook his head and seethed. It was easy for Renji to say that any Firebender could teach him, and to be fair, Ichigo was sure the guy was right about that, but what Renji failed to take into account was Ichigo’s need to find his father.

He needed his dad. He couldn’t do this alone.

Renji was definitely the stereotype of Earthbender personality. Thick, stubborn, pigheaded. Of course he was the good parts too; genuine, loyal, enduring and all that, but he rarely considered other’s feelings before he opened that big mouth of his.

“He’s my dad,” Ichigo gritted out quietly, not wanting to raise his voice while they were still supposed to be careful of attackers. If his father was in Hueco Mundo, Ichigo would find him and break him out. He had to learn Firebending. The stars had bound him as the Avatar, as much as he feared it. “And he was a captain. We need-”

“Your dad was a captain?” Rangiku cut in, seemingly need to clarify that.

“Yeah,” Ichigo answered, eyeing her cautiously, unsure what difference it made to her. Rangiku’s expression was surprised, but also like she had made a connection.

Instantly, Ichigo felt his guard go up.

She glanced at Toshiro who was now regarding Ichigo closely, those icy teal eyes now pierced his soul. They were no longer vague-looking or dull. They were sharp, focused. Intense. There was no expression on that face, but Waterbenders were seldom expressive. Ichigo tensed, feeling no trust for the boy. He was a Waterbender after all, he could betray them at any minute. He could even be a spy. Toshiro held his stare, not blinking once.

At his palms, Ichigo felt the air stir, ready to fight.

“It doesn’t matter,” Renji huffed, seemingly obviously to the growing tension. “We’re not going to Hueco Mundo. You can learn Firebending off any-“

Immediately Ichigo sent that air wave into Renji, knocking him back into the wall. Rukia slipped between them and pushed Ichigo’s hand away, yelling for him to stop. Furious, Ichigo shook his head and stood, storming from the room.

He felt like he couldn’t breathe. He felt like an Airbender that had no air.

* * *

Outside, Ichigo remembered how cold it was away from the warmth of Rangiku’s fire. He was glad his clothes were dry again, but it might not have mattered. He was fuming, his blood running hot in his veins.

He was no closer to finding his father than before, and now he had a Waterbender in his company (again, Rukia was the exception). Not to mention, he’d had his ass kicked earlier by said Waterbender and then was almost eaten by a sea monster.

Also, Renji was an asshole.

Sometimes it was just too much, sometimes he needed a break.

His friends were familiar with that, so he knew they wouldn’t do something as dumb as follow him out.

Logically, he knew why Renji had been so defensive, of why he was so desperate to stay away from Hueco Mundo. The place hadn’t been kind to him, and that was bound to be bringing up some traumatic memories for him.

Still, Ichigo was frustrated. Renji didn’t know fear like Ichigo did, he didn’t know what it was like to have the weight of the world and the world’s Gods on his shoulders.

The Avatar huffed, walking over the rocks around the bay’s shore, and eventually sitting himself on a boulder, one that sat well out of the water. The stars still shone brightly and he glared at them, as if this was their fault.

It was, at least partially.

For several minutes, Ichigo seethed on that rock, glaring at the stars, then at the Junrinan palace, then at the water that lapped with false innocence against the rocks, and eventually to the squawking Albatross bird that was hunting over the bay. The water stretched out to the horizon, though Ichigo couldn’t discern between the water and the sky where black met black.

He was in bad mood, and he wasn’t even sure he had the right to be. He was just frustrated.

This was why he needed his father. He really couldn’t do this on his own. He didn’t know how to be the Avatar, he needed Isshin’s help. Isshin knew everything. 

It was after almost an hour of seething that Ichigo felt the air shift behind him. He turned sharply, always expecting an attack, and found Toshiro crouching on a rock not too far away. The Avatar stared at the boy, but he seemed to have very little interest in Ichigo for the moment.

He hoped down off his rock, and landed gracefully on the one below by the water’s surface. He crouched and stared down at his reflection in the water. Ichigo stared at the boy just as hard and a moment later, the boy’s hand struck quickly, plunging into the icy water and pulling out a fish. Ichigo’s brow furrowed as Toshiro seemed to inspect the fish for a moment as it flapped around in his hand.

In a sudden strike, he brought a knife down on the fish’s head.

Ichigo hadn’t even seen the blade on the boy until now, and he watched with wide eyes as Toshiro flicked the head back into the water and climbed back onto his rock. He sat casually, headless fish in his lap, before he brought the blade back out and began to carve.

It wasn’t a knife exactly, somewhere between dagger and a short sword, but it was a weapon in the hands of a Water Kingdom citizen, one that could bend, and that left Ichigo extra wary.

So far Toshiro hadn’t said anything to him, or even looked his way, but he had to know Ichigo was there.

Ichigo stared openly, forgetting for a moment about Renji’s words earlier, or the annoying Albatross constantly diving for fish over the bay, as the boy cut up the fish. Eventually he turned to Ichigo, finally acknowledging his presence, and held some fish meat out to him.

“Sashimi?” he offered. His voice was deeper than Ichigo had expected, smoother too.

“It’s raw.”

“It’s supposed to be,” Toshiro informed him. Nothing in his voice or expression gave away emotion. Ichigo wasn’t sure he had any.

“I’ll pass,” Ichigo informed him curtly.

“Suit yourself.”

With disgust on his face, Ichigo watched as Toshiro bit into the meat he had cut from the fish and chewed it. He turned back to gaze out at the water.

Ichigo kept his eyes on the Waterbender, full of distrust. Under the moonlight, Toshiro’s hair was even more vibrant, almost a light source of its own, and his skin was pearl white. Not discreet, that was for sure, but he didn’t seem concerned with the prospect of being attacked that night.

There was quiet but distinctive splash of water, and Ichigo did a double take, spotting the golden haired monster that had grabbed his ankle earlier. Its head was poking out of the water, staring at Ichigo, mouth open and licking its pointed teeth hungrily. One eye was covered by wet hair, and the other was glinting in the dark.

“You can’t have him,” Toshiro muttered to the creature. “There’s a whole Albatross out there for you.”

The creature turned its hungry gaze on Toshiro then, and it seemed to hiss a little, as if communicating. Toshiro rolled his eyes and threw some of his fish, namely the tail and spine, down to the creature.

“Here you go, Lazy.”

The fish parts landed on the rocks, and the creature reached up out of the water for it. Grinning its evil smirk, the creature then disappeared under the water again, taking its snack to go. Ichigo caught the scaly emerald sheen of its fish-like tail under the water as it disappeared.

“It’s a… mermaid?” Ichigo couldn’t help but question out loud.

“Merman,” Toshiro corrected. “Yukio.”

“It has a name?” Ichigo asked incredulously.

“Of course he does.”

“What? Are you friends with him?”

“I used to be,” Toshiro murmured. “We went to school together.”

“You… huh?”

Ichigo frowned, trying to picture an absurd school with human kids and merfolk mixed, sitting casually at their desks as a giant squid taught them algebra.

“Until his parents died and his heart turned cold and he became a merman,” Toshiro shrugged, speaking rather quickly albeit casually. “Yeah.”

“What.”

Ichigo had a million questions about that, but only a statement came out.

“When Waterbenders let their hearts turn cold, they lose their humanity,” Toshiro explained slower, matter-of-factly, gesturing to where ‘Yukio’ had now caught the low flying Albatross in what was a splashy battle in the middle of the bay. “They become monsters.”

Hm. Well that explained Ichimaru being a monster, though he had clearly escaped the fish tail.

“And you’re friends with that?” Ichigo stared incredulously at where the splashing had now stopped, and the Albatross was no longer seen flying the night sky.

“Oh no, he’d eat me if he got the chance,” Toshiro clarified, seemingly unfazed, “so I try to keep him well fed.”

“That’s insane,” Ichigo decided.

The boy shrugged, “Not really.”

Okay, well a couple of things had been established that night. Number one, Renji was an asshole. Number two, Toshiro was a nut case.

“I suppose I’m not surprised,” Ichigo muttered, feeling that bad mood rising again. “Though I was under the impression all Waterbenders were monsters anyway.”

“Because Airbenders are so innocent,” Toshiro muttered, tone deadpan despite the intended sarcasm.

“We didn’t start a war,” Ichigo shot back and for the first time that evening, Toshiro showed emotion. He laughed.

“What about your honourable king, Air Lord Aizen?”

“He was a hero.”

“He was a murderer,” Toshiro corrected. “I’m sure he still he is.”

“You don’t know anything!” Ichigo snapped, getting to his feet. He wouldn’t hear such awful slander. “Aizen tried to save his people, that’s more than can be said for your king. Ichimaru killed his own people!”

Toshiro’s sharp gaze was furious when it turned on Ichigo.

“Look around, you idiot,” he spat with venom, gesturing back to the ruins of Junrinan. “Look at the damage. Can you honestly tell me you think Ichimaru did this? Only wind could do damage like this.”

Ichigo wasn’t expecting the boy to show so much fury, and yet he did. At the bottom of the rocks, the waves lapped with more power, like they too were angry. Toshiro wasn’t the only one bubbling with rage though; Ichigo was livid. He didn’t dare break eye contact, not even at the temptation to look at the ruins again and see if Toshiro’s words held any merit.

“Aizen was killed before the fall of Junrinan,” Ichigo growled. “If you’re going to lie, at least get your timeline right.”

“If you’re going to be ignorant, at least be honest about your stupidity.”

_How dare_ he imply Aizen was a murderer. Aizen was kind, he had fought for the safety of his people, and he had died a hero. He had died at the hands of the Water King.

“Why you little-”

“I’m disappointed,” Toshiro sighed, cutting Ichigo off as he leaned back on the rock, resting on his palms. “I had hoped if I ever met you, Ichigo Kurosaki, that we might have got along better.”

Ichigo’s next retort was stolen from his throat in shock.

“How do you know my family name?” he asked instantly. Nobody had said last names during their introductions.

Toshiro glanced over at Ichigo once more. His eyes swept Ichigo’s form for a moment before he returned to gaze back out at the ocean.

“I know everything about you, _Avatar_.”

Toshiro’s words were deliberate and measured, as if Ichigo should have already known that.

“What do you mean?” Ichigo asked impatiently. Fair enough Toshiro had caught the Avatar clues after Renji’s stupid slip up, but what did he mean he knew everything about him? He couldn’t possibly.

“He means we know your father,” Rangiku’s voice, gentle in the night, was soft and contrasting against the anger Ichigo was feeling.

He turned sharply to face her. She was rugged up and standing so close he was surprised he hadn’t felt her coming, let alone heard her. She was holding fire in her hand, using it like a lantern to guide her in the dark.

“You know my father?” Ichigo asked, cautious. He didn’t trust Toshiro in the slightest, but he had hope for Rangiku, being a Firebender like Isshin.

She nodded, a small smile playing at her lips.

“Isshin Kurosaki,” she murmured. Ichigo’s heart stopped.

_Dad._

“Captain spoke of you often,” Toshiro murmured. Ichigo turned back to him, finding him carving into the rock with his blade. “He didn’t tell us you were an idiot, of course.”

Ichigo would have strangled him, but Rangiku appeared quickly between them, blocking Ichigo’s view of the boy, as if anticipating an attack.

“Isshin was so proud of his son, the Avatar,” she told Ichigo calmly. “He was distraught when we heard his hometown had been attacked. He had hoped your Avatar powers might have saved you.”

Ichigo’s eyes blew wide. Isshin had heard about the attack on Karakura?

“How do you know him?” Ichigo asked Rangiku, reaching out for her wrist and gripping it desperately. “Is he okay? Where can I find him?”

“It’s unimportant how we know him,” Rangiku answered carefully. “Just that we do. He escaped from the prison when Junrinan fell. He went home, hoping he would find you there.”

“Home?” Ichigo queried, not taking his eyes off the woman. She smiled softly at Ichigo, twisting her wrist out of his grip and catching his hand gently, squeezing it. Her palm was warm and comforting.

In her other hand, the flames lit her face in the most beautiful orange. Ichigo was sure many would be taken with Rangiku’s beauty; she certainly was the prettiest woman he had seen. He had no interest though, knowing long ago where his interest truly laid. 

“Katara?” Rangiku winced, seemingly stuck on the memory. “Kara-something?”

“Karakura,” Ichigo breathed, saying the name. It tasted bitter in his mouth, even now.

“That’s the one,” Rangiku lit up excitedly. “Your father is in Karakura, awaiting your return.”

Ichigo exhaled suddenly, taking a step back and letting Rangiku’s hand fall from his as he digested the news.

_“Ichigo! Run!”_

He couldn’t go back there. He couldn’t go back to Karakura.

He just couldn’t.

* * *

_“Mum!” Ichigo screamed._

_He held up his arm to shield his eyes from all the dust as he struggled through the chaos. Dust was flying everywhere, he couldn’t see anything. He could only hear the screams._

_Karakura was under attack._

_“Mum!” Ichigo called again. “Where are you?!”_

_He had tears streaming down his face, and fear beating in his heart. He felt frozen, like he couldn’t remember how to Airbend all of a sudden. He was useless. He was the Avatar and he was useless._

_Something knocked him over and Ichigo fell onto his back, the wind knocked out of him as he slammed into the dirt. Immediately a soldier was hovering over him, Ichigo only had time to register the blue crest on the breast of his uniform. The water and the waves wrapped into a circle._

_He saw the glint of steel under the sunlight as a blade was brought down, plunging towards Ichigo’s chest. He screamed, holding his hands up to block the blade and instinctively, air shot forth, blasting the soldier away and sending his sword clattering nearby._

_Shocked and breathless, Ichigo jumped back to his feet. Feeling more confident with his powers again, he spun in a tight circle, sending air through the dust cloud and clearing it for a moment._

_Ichigo could see again, but he almost wished he couldn’t._

_Around him, bodies littered the ground. Still._

_Ichigo’s neighbours, his friends – still._

_Gasping, Ichigo reeled back from the horror and immediately tripped. Once again he fell back and hit the ground. Lifting his dazed head to see what he had tripped on, Ichigo’s heart stopped._

_Karin. Her eyes open but dull, lifeless._

_Ichigo screamed but not a sound came out. He scrambled to his knees quickly, leaning over his younger sister and rolling her body over. She was warm, but she had no life._

_More tears streamed from Ichigo’s eyes as he struggled to comprehend what was surely the worst dream he had ever had._

_He noticed Karin’s arm was outstretched, as if reaching for something. Ichigo’s eyes followed the line her arm had made. Sob left his throat as he spotted Yuzu, just as dead, at the bottom of the porch steps._

_Standing on shaky legs, Ichigo stumbled over to the other twin, but as he reached her, he heard a scream – his mother’s scream._

_It was coming from inside the house and Ichigo rushed in. He poked his head around the wall into the living room. He saw Masaki sat in a chair by the table, white faced and trembling. She had her wrists bound and a knife to her throat. The blade was held by a tall man with long dark hair. He wore a Water Captain’s navy blue uniform._

_“I will only ask once more, Mrs Kurosaki,” the man said calmly. “Tell me where the Avatar is, and perhaps I’ll let you live.”_

_“I don’t know who the Avatar is,” Masaki pleaded with him._

_“My sources tell me he lives here in Karakura,” the man continued. His voice was smooth, commanding, “and it’s not a very big town. I am certain all the residents would have known him.”_

_Ichigo’s breath caught and he swallowed harshly. This attack was because the soldiers were after him?_

_He must have breathed too loudly because Masaki’s eyes fell to him, and the captain turned, spotting him by the entrance._

_“Ichigo!” Masaki gasped, her eyes filling with horror. “Run!”_

_“Mum, I-”_

_“Who is this now?” the man asked, curious. Ichigo was too scared into the man’s eyes._

_“He’s my son,” Masaki’s voice shook. “He has no powers, he’s just a kid. Ichigo, get out of here. Run!”_

_The soldier had his full attention on Ichigo now, and the teenager felt his eyes slide up to the captain’s face._

_“Run, Ichigo! Please go!”_

_Ichigo’s eyes dropped to his mother once more, sparing her a final glace. Her soft brown eyes were full of fear and tears._

_He couldn’t disobey her._

_So Ichigo ran._


	2. Air II: The Prophet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ichigo loses the argument: Toshiro and Rangiku will be travelling with them to Karakura.
> 
> ...
> 
> “I don’t need a Waterbender like you,” Ichigo snapped. “I am going to fight Waterbenders like you. I will have allies from the Fire State and Earth Empire and we will win back what your king stole from us.”
> 
> Lying back and closing his eyes, Ichigo hoped Toshiro would know what was good for him and shut up. Unfortunately it was not the case.
> 
> “I will fight on the side of good, Kurosaki,” Toshiro murmured from the tiller, “and you will need the help. All four elements must come together, that’s what your father believes. That’s what the Gods believed when they created the first Avatar.”

After finding out that his father was in Karakura, Ichigo had struggled to comprehend the news. He had struggled breathe at the thought, to the point Rangiku had to lead him back to the shack. Thankfully Toshiro hadn’t felt the need to follow them, or even attempt to comfort Ichigo at all, because the Avatar was sure he’d kill the brat in his current mood.

Ichigo felt like his world was crashing around him, the land spinning beneath his feet.

_Karakura_.

Anywhere but there. Hell, Ichigo would rather face Hueco Mundo and the Water King over his home town.

He had been back in since-

Since his mother had told him to run. Since Ichigo had run.

Ichigo regretted a lot in his life, but that was the worst thing he had ever done. He should have stayed. He should have fought, or died trying.

Karakura had been his home, but now it was the setting of most of his nightmares.

“I’m sure it’s a lot to take in,” Rangiku murmured as Ichigo gulped breathes. She had her warm hand pressed to his back as she led him over the rocks and back to the house. “When Toshiro and I returned to Junrinan to find what it had become, we were shaken too. We wondered if we should have followed your father to find you instead.”

Ichigo was shaking his head, refusing to listen. He didn’t care. Junrinan was not the same as Karakura. Junrinan was enemy territory, destroyed by themselves.

“Come on, you need to rest,” Rangiku sighed, thankfully not offended by Ichigo’s rudeness. “You can decide tomorrow.”

When they entered the shack, Ichigo calmed a little hearing Renji’s constant snores. Rukia was awake and looked at Ichigo with concern as she rushed over. Rangiku must have already told her because she didn’t ask any questions, simply taking over Rangiku’s care and leading Ichigo back towards the fire. She had set up their sleeping bags there, close together as always.

Rukia made Ichigo sit and he did, compliant with her. They sat in silence for a long time, as Renji continued to snore softly and Rangiku did her best to give them some privacy in the one room shack, cleaning up from dinner before she sat brushing her hair.

“I’m not sure I can go back there,” Ichigo whispered eventually, once Rangiku appeared to have fallen asleep on the other side of the fire. She and Toshiro didn’t appear to have beds either, just sleeping bags like them.

“Your father is waiting for you there,” Rukia’s violet eyes were soft, her voice gentle as she rubbed Ichigo’s arm.

Ichigo shook his head. He felt like an ass now, thinking about how he had been more than happy to force Renji returning to his trauma, but now, in the face of his own, Ichigo couldn’t cope with it.

“He might not be,” Ichigo gave a shuttered breath.

Rangiku had said Isshin had gone that way three years ago. Well, a lot could happen in three years.

Rukia took a deep breath.

“Well maybe there is a way around it,” she offered. “We could get close, and then maybe Renji and I could go in and see if we can find him? We could bring him to you.”

Ichigo sighed. It was an idea, but not one he liked. He didn’t like the idea of the three of them splitting up, even for a moment, when entering a new and potentially dangerous location. As it were, they didn’t really have much safety in numbers.

“Let’s sleep on it,” Rukia suggested then, seemingly sensing his argument. “We’re safe here tonight.”

“Are we?” Ichigo bit a little. He hadn’t forgotten about the little white haired asshole outside, eating his raw fish and talking to the monster merman named ‘Yukio’.

“It will be fine,” Rukia waved him off, and the next thing Ichigo knew, she was pushing him back in his sleeping bag.

The Avatar sighed again. He didn’t really believe that, but Rangiku seemed alright, surely she wouldn’t let the Waterbending brat attack them again.

Still, as Rukia slipped into her own sleeping bag and rolled over, and the fire slowly died out, Ichigo laid awake. His mind was still racing, with what Rangiku had told him, with what Toshiro had said. Ichigo tried to think about other things; his father, and how close their reunion might be, of a future world where there was peace and he had kids of his own, of that time Renji tripped on his own shoelaces and fell face first into a cow pat. As much as it gave Ichigo a small smirk in the dark room, it wasn’t entirely effective.

He could still hear his mother’s dying screams, echoing from the house as he ran away.

It was hours later, in fact it was coming up on dawn when Ichigo finally heard Toshiro return to the shack. He slipped in quietly, causing Ichigo to hold his breath for a moment as not to make a sound, though deep breathing would have been less suspicious in hindsight.

Still, Toshiro appeared not to notice as he changed quietly out of sight and crept over to Rangiku. Ichigo watched, through low lidded eyes in the dark, as Toshiro slipped into his sleeping bag next to Rangiku and curled up against her.

Rangiku stirred at his arrival, her arm coming around the teenager.

Ichigo stared at them, watching how Rangiku pressed a small kiss into Toshiro’s hair and how he hummed and curled further against her. It was hard to imagine him being an evil Waterbender, not with how gentle and vulnerable he seemed with his friend right now, but Ichigo’s opinion wouldn’t slip.

He knew what Waterbenders were capable of. They were as cold as the element they controlled. They were monsters, well before they turned to merfolk.

* * *

Eventually Ichigo must have fallen asleep, because when he woke it was well into the day. The air felt warmer with sun up, and the light cast a horrible amount of detail into the rundown shack they had spent the night in.

“Hungry?”

Glancing to the familiar voice, Ichigo found Renji leaning over the map, plotting points on it. His eyes were furrowed in concentration, but he had clearly registered Ichigo’s awakening. There was a bowl beside him, and he pushed it towards Ichigo with his knuckles. The Avatar frowned, glancing down at it.

“Rangiku?”

A knowing smirk tugged at Renji’s lips. “Rukia.”

Signing in relief, Ichigo grabbed the bowl and dug in. It was another seafood concoction, but Rukia was a marginally better cook than Rangiku. Ichigo had made that assessment last night, after having exactly one of Rangiku’s alleged ‘meals’.

Chewing, and only grimacing marginally, Ichigo glanced around the shack. Bar he and Renji, the dwelling was empty, and all the sleeping bags but the one Ichigo currently resided in had been rolled up.

For several minutes, no words were said between the two men. Despite their fight last night, and the fact Ichigo had gone to the lengths of using his powers on his friend, neither them felt the need to apologise. Ichigo felt no ill feelings towards his friend, and he was certain Renji felt the same. They were mates, they always picked back up like there had never been an issue in the first place.

“Where is Rukia anyway?” Ichigo asked, mouth half full. He was concerned, not seeing Rukia in the room, but the fact that Renji was calm meant that their friend must have been safe, wherever she was.

“She’s fishing,” Renji shrugged. “Making sure we have enough food to get us to Karakura.”

He knocked his knuckle against the map he was working over. Ichigo stopped mid-chew, feeling that anxiety and guilt settling in his stomach again. Renji glanced up at him then, eyebrow raised but not in a challenging way.

“If you want to go, that is,” he added, softer that Ichigo had been expecting. Obviously Rukia had filled him in.

Ichigo looked away, exhaling into his bowl. Did he want to go to Karakura? Not a single bit. Did he want to find his father? With all his heart.

After a moment of feeling Renji’s brown eyes boring into him, Ichigo eventually nodded.

“We’ll set off at dusk then,” the Earthbender nodded, consulting his map again. “I think we could get there in a month if we go the long way.”

“A month?” Ichigo questioned. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe it, it was just that a month was too damn long. He needed to find Isshin as soon as possible.

“On foot, yeah,” Renji grimaced. Ichigo narrowed his eyes at his friend, sitting up in his sleeping bag. Something about Renji’s tone suggested there was more to it than that.

“Is there an alternative?” Ichigo asked when Renji appeared to ignore him.

The man snorted. “That’s Rukia’s job to tell you, not mine. I want to keep my head, thank you.”

Did they really think he was so volatile? Ichigo sent Renji a questioning look but the man said nothing further. Huffing, Ichigo dropped the bowl back to the ground and slipped out of his sleeping bag. He pulled on his jacket and boots quickly before slipping out of the shack, looking for Rukia to deliver whatever news Renji didn’t have the balls to tell him.

Ichigo didn’t have to look far to find his friend, but he did feel his anger rise when he did.

Rukia wasn’t alone. She was with Toshiro and Rangiku.

It was only the sight of Toshiro that made Ichigo’s jaw set.

He marched out of the ankle deep water and back onto the ‘dry land’ which was just more ice and headed towards the trio. The three of them were on the wide ice pier, while Rukia and Toshiro appeared to be using their Waterbending to pull fish from the water into large bucket. Rangiku, on the other hand, seemed to have more interest in sitting in the sun and soaking up its rays.

“What are you doing?” Ichigo hissed when he was close enough to them. “It’s broad daylight. Someone could see you out here!”

Rukia seemed startled at his appearance, and in her panic she dropped a fish she had been Waterbending into the bucket. The creature fell at Ichigo’s feet, flopping about on the ice. Hastily, Rukia made to grab it, tossing it into the bucket.

“No one comes here anymore, Ichigo,” Rangiku’s voice was calm where she sat. “You’re the first people we’ve seen in a long time.”

“And we’re hidden by these boats,” Rukia added quickly, sensing Ichigo’s retorts. She gestured to two surviving boats by the pier, one of each side of where they were fishing.

“It’s dangerous,” Ichigo told her quietly. He still had one eye on Toshiro; the brat was smirking, though he seemed to know what was good for him and held his tongue as he continued to bend the water and get fish into the bucket with ease.

Rukia sighed and abandoned her bending in favour of taking Ichigo’s arm and leading him further down the pier, out of earshot, and behind the last surviving boat docked at the pier.

“It’s okay, Ichigo. They know what they’re doing,” Rukia murmured gently, rubbing his arm reassuringly. “They’re _good_. They’re helping us.”

Ichigo shot Rukia a look of betrayal and distrust. How could she honestly think any Waterbender was good? She had experienced their evil first hand, Just as he had.

Rukia sighed and reached up to Ichigo’s shoulder, squeezing it reassuringly. Her violet eyes were swimming with care, concern and pity, which the Avatar didn’t like.

“If Toshiro was working for King Ichimaru, he would be Hueco Mundo,” she explained calmly. “He’s a powerful Waterbender, he’d be in Water Kingdom Army.”

“Then why isn’t he?” Ichigo argued. “What if he’s a spy?”

“He’s been living in the Junrinan ruins, alone with a Firebender,” Rukia pointed out. “I think he just wants to protect Rangiku.”

Ichigo frowned at her again, but he let his eyes slip back to the two at the end of the pier. Toshiro was squatting beside Rangiku, showing her a starfish he’d obviously found. He was grinning, which was odd in itself considering his otherwise lack of emotion, and he looked particularly proud of himself when Rangiku gave him a rewarding pat on the head.

They were weird.

Ichigo shook his head disapprovingly, and turned his attention back on Rukia – partially, since he felt the need to keep an eye on the starfish boy.

“Renji says it’s going to take a month to get to Karakura,” Ichigo changed the topic, but was unhappy with how Karakura was now the safer of the topics to discuss. “Unless you know a quicker way?”

He remembered why he had come out to find her in the first place. Besides, the sooner they got out of here and away from the water freak, the better.

Rukia grimaced and swallowed, which led Ichigo to believe she could, in fact, mind read and was about to deliver some bad news.

“Well we could shave a couple weeks off our journey if we cross Dragons’ Strait,” Rukia spoke cautiously, gesturing towards the mouth of Junrinan’s bay. “We could get to Daffodil Point in two days, and from there Karakura would be a ten day walk at most.”

Ichigo looked out of the bay, seeing the choppy sea that wasn’t protected from the winds like the water inside the cove was. In the daylight, Junrinan’s water was the most beautiful pale turquoise – Ichigo had never seen water like that.

“We don’t have a boat,” Ichigo pointed out, “or any sailing experience.”

“No, we don’t…” Rukia drawled, raising an eyebrow at Ichigo to make the connection she was implying.

He frowned at her, unsure of where she was going with that at first, but then she leaned against the boat beside her, and over her shoulder, Ichigo’s eyes automatically landed on Toshiro. He was returning the starfish back to the water.

It clicked.

“No,” Ichigo answered simply. “Absolutely not.”

Rukia sighed, but she had to be expecting that answer. She grabbed his hands quickly, as if preparing to calm him.

“Toshiro has offered to get us across the strait,” she explained what Ichigo now already knew. “He and Rangiku want help us get to Karakura.”

“Rukia, I said ‘no’-”

“I think we need them, Ichigo,” Rukia huffed, “and Renji agrees. We could use two more fighters.”

“We’ve managed fine on our own this far.”

“We’ve _survived_ , and only just.”

Rukia’s words were emphasised and her eyes were pleading but Ichigo couldn’t understand it. How could she and Renji trust a Waterbender? They were evil, they were cold-hearted monsters. Not only that, but Toshiro in particular was an asshole, and crazy one at that.

“I’m not travelling with him, Rukia,” Ichigo told her firmly. “Do you know what he said last night? He called Aizen a murderer, said he was the one that destroyed Junrinan. Can you believe that?”

She could apparently, if the way her face paled at his words was anything to go by. Immediately Ichigo gaped at her with a shocked and outraged expression.

“You-”

“I’m not saying Toshiro is telling the truth,” Rukia scrambled to explain as Ichigo jerked out of her grasp, “but he probably does think he’s right. When I first saw the damage, my first thought was that it looked like a cyclone had ripped through here.”

Ichigo paused, remembering how he had a similar thought when he had seen the damage, but he certainly hadn’t connected that to an Airbender. Airbenders were a peaceful people, very spiritual and benevolent. Aizen was the epitome of that – he was no murderer. Maybe he had killed during wartime, but Ichigo was positive it was only to fight for the safety of his people.

Rukia grimaced sheepishly. “It’s just what it looks like.”

Ichigo turned away from her, mostly because he was mad at her and he didn’t want to look at her anymore. Turning was worse though, because it locked his eyes firmly onto the damage around him.

In the light, the extent of the damage was more horrific. It was a wonder that there were any survivors at all.

It did look a storm had destroyed the small city. Ichigo hated to admit that, but he still wasn’t giving credit to Toshiro’s words. Water could have done it and since dried or washed away – it had been three years after all. Just because there wasn’t a lot of excess ice, other than what had previously been a part of the buildings and infrastructure, it didn’t mean anything. Gin Ichimaru had slaughtered his own people – he was a mad man, paranoid that he would be usurped the same way he had taken the throne himself. He was a monster.

If Aizen had done this, and Ichigo didn’t believe he did, than it was purely to fight back against Ichimaru.

“You better go rest, Ichigo,” Rukia sighed. “Either way, we’re leaving at dusk.”

Grunting, Ichigo stalked away from his friend and off the pier, back towards the house where he was sure to convince Renji they didn’t need Toshiro or Rangiku’s help getting to Karakura.

He was not travelling with the kid, and that was final.

* * *

Long story short, Ichigo had lost the argument.

He sat inside the small sailboat as it raced across the Dragons’ Strait, glaring death at the white-haired Waterbender who was navigating them over the passage.

Unfortunately, Ichigo’s group had always operated as a democracy. They’d voted, and Renji and Rukia had both wanted Toshiro and Rangiku to tag along. Alas, Ichigo was forced into the sailboat and was now at a Water Kingdom citizen’s mercy to get to Daffodil Point alive and in one piece.

Toshiro ignored Ichigo’s glare, which was rude. Those teal eyes were focused sharply on the sea and the horizon, with hand on the tiller and the other on a rope that was connected to one of the sails.

Ichigo had to seethe in silence, since apparently none of his friends were tolerating his bad mood over this anymore.

“Accept it, Mate,” Renji had chuckled.

“Just focus on getting to your father,” Rukia had offered, far kinder. “It won’t be long now.”

They had loaded the boat at dusk and set off into the vast strait. Fortunately for everyone, Rangiku chatted her way through the tension, explaining all about the history of Dragons’ Straight and how it got its name.

“Legend has it, the Great Water Dragon Spirit, ‘Hyorinmaru’, lives in this strait,” she explained with a bright smile, as if trying to encourage the rest of the party to do the same. “He is said to protect the Junrinan Waterbenders crossing to Daffodil Point.”

Ichigo made a sound that wasn’t polite, and that earned him a sharp glare from Rukia. In his opinion, the dragon probably should have drowned them.

“We’ve heard about Hyorinmaru in the Southern Territory,” Rukia smiled shyly, turning back to Rangiku and perhaps trying to recover from Ichigo’s rudeness. “Supposedly, he was born from the Moon Gods. From the strait, Junrinan is supposed to look like a dragon’s head.”

“That’s right,” Rangiku grinned and nodded her head back to Junrinan. “That’s why the Water Royals settled there hundreds of years ago. It’s sacred ground.”

Ichigo glanced back with everyone else, expression bored as he turned to see the distant bay of Junrinan. It was dark, but under the bright light of the full moon, the silhouette of the icy hills could still be made out. It did look a little like a dragon’s head, to be fair. The snout of the dragon was low to the water, as if the creature was lying down, sleeping under the night sky.

“There is a legend that one day a Heavenly Guardian will be able to conjure Hyorinmaru in battle,” Rukia murmured.

“Heavenly Guardian?” Renji queried, echoing Ichigo’s thoughts.

“A Waterbender chosen by the Moon Gods,” Rangiku supplied with a light chuckle. “They’re supposed to be pure of heart.”

Before Ichigo could even open his mouth to make a sarcastic comment about that, he was smacked over the head with a heavy metal beam.

Ichigo grunted and lifted his throbbing head to see the sailboat’s boom swinging over the boat.

“Duck,” Toshiro warned after the fact, tone dry.

Ichigo shot the guy a sharp glare while rubbing sore spot at the back of his head. Well, at least they could rule out one candidate for the Heavenly Guardian.

Seemingly ignoring the exchange, Rangiku appeared to only sigh longingly.

“It’s all folklore,” she waved it off casually before chuckling again, “but it makes for excellent bedtime stories if you’ve got a grumpy ward that won’t adhere to his bedtime.”

Ichigo smirked seeing Toshiro roll his eyes, a slight dusting of pink on his cheeks. It was almost worth getting hit in the head over.

For the most part, the rest of the evening passed quietly. Between Rangiku’s fire, Rukia’s gathered fish and Renji’s barbecuing ability, another fish dinner was served. Somehow, despite being cooked on a cramped boat in the middle of a strait, it was the best of the meals Ichigo had had since leaving the mountain sanctuary days ago.

Rangiku retired for the night first, ducking into small cabin. It was a tiny space, so tight that Ichigo was sure Renji would have struggled to get in there. It was agreed early that the two women could share it, and the guys would sleep above deck. It wasn’t comfortable, but they’d slept on worse.

Rukia followed Rangiku into the cabin shortly after, and Renji stretched out over the space she had just vacated. Of course, the Earthbender was snoring in seconds, leaving Ichigo alone with Toshiro.

Teal eyes glanced at Ichigo, and a white eyebrow was raised as if daring the Avatar to make a remark.

Ichigo huffed and turned to face the sea, ignoring the Waterbender.

He was tempted to try sleeping, but he also didn’t like the idea of no one keeping an eye on Toshiro while they slept. Ichigo still didn’t trust the guy, and he doubted he ever will.

He was curious how his father knew Toshiro and Rangiku. They hadn’t said, and in fact had gone out of their way to avoid explaining. Still, the way they spoke of Isshin seemed to imply they were close to him once.

For nearly an hour, Ichigo sat in silence while Toshiro continued to steer them across the strait. The wind had picked up, blowing a gust into the sails that increased their speed. Ichigo inhaled the air deeply; he didn’t like being at sea, but the air was so fresh. He felt revitalised after their last few days of travelling down the mountain.

“Have you ever thought about sailboats, Kurosaki?” Toshiro asked then, causing Ichigo to turn and frown at him.

Gods, he didn’t want another conversation with the nut case.

“No,” Ichigo answered curtly.

“They’re tools of wind and water,” Toshiro explained, voice toneless. “It can’t operate without both.”

Ichigo snarled, realising quickly that he hated sailboats. He didn’t like to think that he, as an Airbender, needed Toshiro, a Waterbender, but unfortunately that was the case Rukia had presented to him when she had been trying to convince him to let Rangiku and Toshiro join them to Karakura. She had also presented the argument that Rangiku was very much an asset as the only Firebender amongst them. She didn’t say that Rangiku was the backup plan if they couldn’t find Isshin, but Ichigo knew she had been thinking it.

“I don’t need you,” Ichigo told Toshiro defiantly.

“You need all the help you can get to win the war, Avatar.”

“The war against the Water Kingdom, you mean?”

“If you want to be so narrow-minded, sure.”

This guy was unbelievable. The Water Kingdom was the enemy – facts were facts, there was no other way to view it.

Annoyed again, Ichigo huffed and reached for his sleeping bag. He had to distract himself, as not punch Toshiro in the face. It was too risky a move, considering they were in the Waterbender’s domain now, part way across the Dragons’ Strait.

“I don’t need a Waterbender like you,” Ichigo snapped. “I am going to _fight_ Waterbenders like you. I will have allies from the Fire State and Earth Empire and we _will_ win back what your king stole from us.”

Lying back and closing his eyes, Ichigo hoped Toshiro would know what was good for him and shut up. Unfortunately it was not the case.

“I will fight on the side of good, Kurosaki,” Toshiro murmured from the tiller, “and you _will_ need the help. All four elements must come together, that’s what your father believes. That’s what the Gods believed when they created the first Avatar.”

Ichigo huffed again, louder this time, and rolled over so he had his back to the brat, pulling up the hood of the sleeping bag to shield him from the wind and from view. He had to bite his tongue, but it was worth it for no follow up comments came from Toshiro.

Ichigo clenched his eyes closed, feeling his emotions rise.

He didn’t want to admit it but Toshiro’s last words hit him hard. He knew he had to learn all four elements and use them to win the war. He knew he had to fight, and that he would need the help. He knew what it meant to be the Avatar, of course did.

Ichigo Kurosaki was the Avatar, and he was scared.

* * *

It was only a day and a half later that the hull of Toshiro’s boat hit the pebbles at Daffodil Point but it was the longest thirty-six hours of Ichigo’s life, though Rangiku tried to keep them thoroughly distracted with her boisterous antics.

Ichigo avoided speaking to Toshiro for the rest of the boat journey, though he strove to always keep one eye on the guy at all times, just in case he did something suspicious. His friends seemed far less concerned though.

“Why are you so defensive of him?” Ichigo hissed to Rukia when she jumped in to silence Ichigo voicing his concerns to her.

“Why are you _obsessed_ with him?” she rebutted, but tone suggested she already knew the answer.

“Because he’s the enemy!”

That had Rukia in a fit of giggles that he didn’t understand. Ichigo couldn’t comprehend a single idea of what she found so entertaining about them having a threat as dangerous as Toshiro driving them across the Dragons’ Strait.

It was annoying and it left the Avatar uneasy, but _finally,_ they were back on dry land, with the intention of heading inland, far away from the seas, and where Ichigo would feel much safer. Toshiro would be off home territory and away from a vast supply of his natural element.

They unpacked the boat quickly and dragged it up onto the shore, beside the tall cliffside. Renji took a stance and pushed his open palms towards the boat, and immediately the vessel was hidden inside the rock of the cliff.

“Well, that’s handy,” Rangiku beamed at the Earthbender, who blushed immediately under the beautiful woman’s impressed eyes.

“We better get moving,” Rukia rolled her eyes, her tone an octave off annoyed, before she marched up the rocky shore, map open in her hands.

The rest of the journey was to be completed on foot, and if they made good time, would take them another ten days or so to reach Karakura.

The days passed in routine. They found safe places to camp during the night and walked at day, unless they needed to pass a particularly notorious spot for Water Kingdom patrols. Those times they would travel at night when they were less likely to be seen by any passing soldiers. They often stayed off the beaten path, sometimes needing to hike through dense forests. Ichigo had wondered if Rangiku and Toshiro would be able to keep up with what was a physically demanding journey, but they had no issues.

Even as more days passed, Ichigo did not feel his distrust for Toshiro waver, but he suspected it was a two-way street. Toshiro carried his short sword close when they walked, always prepared for an attack, and he didn’t sleep unless he was right next to Rangiku.

“Well of course he’s uneasy around you,” Rukia hissed at Ichigo one night when they were sitting around the fire, after he had pointed those facts out to her. “You’ve got a short temper and everything he says has you glaring death at him.”

“Because he’s always saying asshole-y things,” Ichigo defended through a whisper.

For the most part, Renji’s snores covered their conversation, along with the crackling of the fire, but they still spoke quietly. On the other side of the fire pit, Toshiro and Rangiku slept side by side.

“You act like you’re going to kill him soon,” Rukia glared at Ichigo.

“Don’t tempt me,” Ichigo muttered, rolling his eyes. “One less Waterbender in the world…”

In truth, he’d never killed before and he hoped never to, but when he thought of the likes of those Waterbenders that had killed his mother and sisters, and the ones who had torn Isshin from him, he didn’t think he’d have much trouble doing it.

“What about me?” Rukia asked, her voice thick and when Ichigo glanced at her he saw her ashen expression, like she had been punched in the gut.

“I didn’t mean you-”

“There is no difference between him and me,” Rukia stressed, her eyes hurt. “We’re Waterbenders yes, but we’re also victims of the war.”

Ichigo swallowed. He hadn’t meant to hurt her, he hadn’t meant to make her sad or bring up her bad memories.

“We don’t know that about him.”

“We know that all he has is Rangiku,” Rukia muttered turning back to face the fire, expression resigned, “like all I have is you and Renji, and you’re both idiots.”

Ichigo pouted at that, knowing he’d well and truly annoyed her now. He reached out for her and pulled her into a hug, murmuring an apology for making her upset.

“I hear what you’re saying,” he murmured into her hair, “but I can’t trust him until I know for sure whose side his on.”

He felt Rukia’s eye roll more than he saw it, but he knew this meant she had forgiven him.

“Whatever,” she sighed, pulling away from him. “We all know why you’re so obsessed with him-”

“I’m not obsessed with him-”

“-He’s gorgeous.”

“-He’s gorg- He’s what?!” Ichigo spluttered, eyes almost bursting out of their sockets at the insinuation.

“You heard me,” Rukia smirked. She stood from the log they were sitting on and sauntered over to her sleeping bag.

Ichigo stared after her, speechless and appalled. He didn’t like how she winked at him as she slipped inside her bag and curled onto her side, back to him.

Ichigo sat there, glaring at his friend’s back, thoughtless and unblinking until his eyes hurt.

Toshiro was _not_ gorgeous.

For the most part, Toshiro had kept quiet and to himself (thank the Gods), but Rangiku flittered about the group, always feeling the need to strike up a lengthy conversation. Ichigo noticed that despite appearing very self-involved, the woman rarely seemed to speak about herself seriously and in depth. She gave them so many irrelevant superficial details about foods she liked and the hobbies she enjoyed, but never about her past. Still, Ichigo didn’t know how she knew his father.

The most useful information Ichigo got out of the woman was on the sixth day, as they walked on over the rather dry land. She had caught up to him at the front of the group as the sky started to turn gold with the approaching sunset.

“Have you learned any Firebending yet?” Rangiku asked, appearing abruptly at Ichigo’s side that afternoon.

“Uh, no,” Ichigo blinked, surprised at her sudden appearance. “I’ve been trying to find my father so he could teach me.”

“Of course, Isshin is master Firebender,” Rangiku agreed as she fell into step with him, “but you know, I am pretty good too. I’d be happy to help you get started before we find your dad.”

Ichigo raised an eyebrow at her and those light blue eyes were beaming at him with encouragement. She really was a incredibly positive human being; it seemed so wasted on Toshiro, who seemed to have no feelings, positive or otherwise… unless snark was a feeling.

“I- I guess,” Ichigo shrugged. He honestly wasn’t sure if he could have said no to Rangiku, but perhaps it would be good to get some basics down before Isshin could show him the military-grade Firebending that a Fire Army Captain was capable of.

Rangiku squealed and clapped her hands together excitedly.

“Firebending is a beautiful art,” she gushed. “It’s like dancing, but fierce and sharp, y’know? Not as clunky as Earthbending, not as fluid as Waterbending, and certainly not as vague as Airbending-”

“Vague?” Ichigo interrupted.

Rangiku giggled and waved him off.

“You know what I mean,” she shrugged. “Airbending is all about mindset and spirituality. Firebending is more about channelling anger through your limbs and out of your body.”

Ichigo hummed, having heard that before.

Rangiku decided to start their first lesson then and there, and immediately had Ichigo working through some basic arm movements as they walked on.

“Feel the anger in your stomach. It’s energy store of the body,” she told him, placing her hand on his stomach lightly. Ichigo breathed deeply, feeling his anger at Gin Ichimaru and Byakuya Kuchiki rising swirling together in his gut. “Now imagine drawing that emotion up through your arms and to your fingertips.”

She took a couple of quick steps forward before taking a wide stance. She struck her hand out suddenly, punching the air in front of her but with two fingers pointed out. Immediately flames shot out of her fingertips, the heat radiating off them incredible.

“Wow,” Ichigo breathed. He shuddered, trying to picture getting into a fight with a Firebender.

“Now you try,” Rangiku encouraged him. “This is one of the most basic attacks.”

Ichigo nodded, understanding the theory well enough, and tried it for himself. He pulled the anger in his stomach up his arm and then when he felt right, punched forward, two fingers pointed ahead of him. There was no fire but there was a spark!

“Almost!” Rangiku cheered. “Try it again. Really focus on the energy travelling through you.”

Ichigo tried again, a few times, and finally on the seventh or eighth attempt, flames finally shot out of him. It was short lived, and the heat still wasn’t up to Rangiku’s level, but hey, fire was fire!

Ichigo stared down at his hands in shock and awe as Rangiku patted his back proudly.

“That was easier than I expected,” he commented, unable to take his eyes of his magic hands.

“I think you’ll find Firebending the easiest of the three elements you’ve still got to learn,” Rangiku hummed. “It’s in your blood after all, and guess what fuels fire?”

“Air,” Ichigo breathed. Well, oxygen really, but still air.

Rangiku grinned, “Yes, but it has to be proportionate. Wind will fuel and travel an inferno, but it will extinguish a candle.”

As she spoke those words, she held up one finger with a dancing candle flame on the tip, and a second later a small breeze blew it out. Ichigo sighed, seeing her point.

“Thanks,” he murmured to her. He supposed it wasn’t so bad having Rangiku join them on the journey to Karakura, but it was a shame she was part of a package deal.

“We’ll work on it over the next few days,” Rangiku smiled softly at him. “Then you’ll be ready for Isshin to show you the serious stuff.”

Ichigo grinned. He liked how certain she seemed that they were going to find his father. It gave him more confidence, and Ichigo was already starting to picture their reunion. He was so close now, he could feel it.

“I can’t wait to see him again,” Ichigo admitted softly. It was the first time he had said that aloud, despite it being a thought in his head since the day Isshin was sent to war. He’d been too scared to say it, in case it never came true, but Rangiku put him at ease.

“I bet,” she smiled sadly. “Me too, and Toshiro of course. I know you probably don’t want to hear that.”

Ichigo glanced over his shoulder at the group behind him. Renji and Rukia were off in their own world as they often were, bickering like an old married couple. Toshiro walked at the back, seemingly also in a world of his own, his expression thoughtful. He had his blade strapped to his back between him and his knapsack, and his arms folded over his chest, his hands disappearing in the opposite sleeves.

Ichigo turned back to Rangiku, deciding to try his question again. “Are you going to tell me how you know my dad yet?”

“No,” Rangiku sighed. “I’m sure Isshin will, but we try not to speak about it.”

Ichigo pursed his lips disapprovingly. That didn’t make it sound good.

“But your relationship with my dad was positive?” he clarified.

“Very much,” Rangiku assured him, voice gentle. “He was a good friend to me, and he was a good father to Toshiro.”

Ichigo shot her a look, to which Rangiku appeared to have to quell a chuckle before she reached over to ruffle his hair.

“Not literally, of course,” she chuckled, “but he was all we had for many years. Isshin can tell you the rest.”

Ichigo shook off the woman’s hand and stepped out of her reach. She looked pleased with herself, that was for sure, and quickly transitioned them into a distracting conversation over the shape of the clouds overhead and whether or not Ichigo thought the biggest one looked like a fluffy cat or a dagger penetrating a skull.

It was conversational whiplash but Ichigo supposed that was Rangiku’s specialty. She only gave away so much, and yet made it feel like she never stopped talking.

Ichigo snuck another glance at Toshiro, and found those teal eyes piercing him. The Avatar turned his gaze back around sharply, but the imprint of those icy irises stayed in his mind. They were sharp and dangerous. Warning.

Swallowing, Ichigo quickly jumped back into conversation with Rangiku about the clouds, feeling safer with her between them.

The group continued to walk on, but it was only as Rukia appeared to be half way through suggesting they stop to make camp as the sun was setting, they heard shouting.

Stuttering in their steps to glance at each other in surprise, the group paused to listen for a moment.

“No, please not my scrolls!” a man’s voice shouted. “Someone please help!”

Hurrying towards the sound, the group moved quickly up the small hill ahead of them. Ichigo got to the top first, his eyes widening when he saw the scene below; looters, perhaps six or seven, attacking a man and robbing his cart as he trembled on the ground at their feet. Two of the men kicked the victim on the ground, while the rest unloaded his cart and filled their own.

Without hesitation, Ichigo ran down the side of the hill, vaguely hearing Rukia call after him. When he was close enough, he swung his arm out, sending a strong gust of wind and knocking three of the looters off their feet. He didn’t have to concentrate as much as he did with Firebending, because Airbending had always felt so much more natural to him.

Someone grabbed his wrist, and Ichigo turned sharply, sending another guy flying through the air. He landed several metres away, and groaned loudly from the dirt.

Ichigo spotted Rangiku scaring the life out of another looter with her Firebending, and then he saw Rukia and Toshiro helping the innocent man up off the ground. Ichigo was momentarily distracted by the man’s appearance. He had deep set eyes and a peculiar moustache, however it was his clothes that threw Ichigo the most; a dark jacket with a white fur collar and a deep red cape, a royal blue silk tunic underneath and an oversized stripy belt and tall blue hat with the word ‘Don’ written across the front in gold lettering. It matched the gold medallion around his neck and the two thick gold bangles on his wrists.

Out of the corner of his eye, Ichigo spotted another looter approaching them from behind with a sword, and just as Ichigo went to yell for Rukia to watch out, Toshiro turned sharply, pulling his own blade from his back and met the looter’s sword in a loud clang of metal. He blocked and parried with ease, sending the looter stumbling back and a moment later, he knocked the sword out of the man’s hands with a whip made of water.

Rukia’s eyes were as wide as Ichigo’s felt, however his shock was rudely interrupted as Renji suddenly fell at Ichigo’s feet, groaning.

“Airbender,” he wheezed, winded by the fall.

The Avatar turned swiftly, fury burning in him as he found another looter approaching quickly, already ducking and turning into a classic Airbender move. Ichigo ducked the attack and stepped forward swiftly. He felt the anger in his stomach easily, furious with how these men were attacking the oddly-dressed civilian, and for hurting Renji and attacking Rukia. He was angered further to find an Airbender with them, and was already annoyed because he knew Toshiro would have something to snarky say about this.

Ichigo slid into the stance Rangiku had shown him, and punched the anger forward and out of his body. Flames, larger than his first attempt but still not quite up to Rangiku’s standard, shot forth, reaching the other Airbender. The man screamed, reeling back, hands against his face.

He wasn’t burned… _badly_. His eyebrows were singed off though.

The Airbender growled at Ichigo but stood down.

“Let’s go, Men,” he spat to the other looters. “This one is the Avatar.”

Ichigo’s shock was internalised but he kept his anger on his face, glaring at the men as they ran off, like the cowards they were.

Behind him, Renji was groaning again and Ichigo turned to see his friend getting to his feet, holding his side.

“Too quick,” he complained.

“You’re too slow, Grandpa,” Ichigo chuckled walking past him and clapping the red head on the back. Renji was only a couple years older than him, but Ichigo never let him forget it.

“Nice flames, Ichigo,” Rangiku appeared on Ichigo’s left, falling into step with him again, her grin wide.

“I had a good teacher,” Ichigo returned the grin. He couldn’t wait to show his father what he could do.

They caught up with Rukia, Toshiro and the victim as he trembled on the grass between them.

“Is he okay?” Ichigo asked Rukia, who nodded.

“He’s shaken,” Rukia murmured, “but not injured.”

“You!” the man yelled then, spotting Ichigo. He pointed an accusatory finger at him. “I’ve been looking for you!”

“Me?” Ichigo raised an eyebrow at the man.

“Yes, Avatar Ichigo,” the man quickly drew himself up onto his knees and bowed low, grabbing Ichigo’s hands and holding them tightly. “I’ve seen you in my visions.”

Ichigo leaned away, surprise and unease in his expression, trying to twist his fingers out of the man’s hands. Who was this weird man?

“Visions?”

“I am Don Kanonji, Prophet from the Eastern Air Temple,” the man explained. “I have to deliver a message to you, Avatar Ichigo!”

The group’s combined expressions were that of humoured disbelief and concern that this man was a mad man, but Ichigo straightened suddenly.

He had only been to one of the Air Temples – the Northern Air Temple – once with his parents a long time ago. The Elder Monks took him up there after telling him his fate as the newest Avatar, to pass on their teachings to him. They had spent a month up there when he was ten, shortly before Isshin was sent to war, but the most memorable thing Ichigo had taken away from the experience was the monks’ strong spiritual beliefs. Many of the Elders were considered to be Prophets – those considered to have stronger connections to the many Gods than others – and they often spoke as messengers.

“You don’t look like any of the monks I’ve ever met,” Ichigo told Don cautiously.

“I know,” Don sighed, like this was a common problem he encountered. “I am better dressed.”

Renji must have caught up, because Ichigo heard him snort loudly from behind and Rangiku looked like she was having to hold in her giggles. Even Toshiro raised a sceptical eyebrow.

Rukia, the only sensible one amongst them, threw Renji a glare over Ichigo’s shoulder before she turned back to the apparent prophet.

“You said you have a message?” she asked him.

“Yes,” Don nodded, “for Avatar Ichigo; a warning from the Gods.”

“A warning?” Ichigo questioned, finally pulling his hands from Don’s grasp.

Don clapped his hands together, as if praying. He hummed deeply, closing his eyes and exhaling.

“When the night is longest, the winds show their true power,” Don’s voice went deep, almost ancient in sound. “It shall be then, when the moon turns blue and a new star joins the night sky, the Avatar will conquer or perish. Remember, the power of only one element can bring peace.”

“Which element?” Ichigo asked immediately.

If that was a warning from the Gods, then it didn’t sound good. If Don Konanji was truly a prophet from the Eastern Air Temple, then the prophecy was legitimate. If the prophecy was legitimate, then it was telling Ichigo how to beat Gin Ichimaru and his Water Kingdom armies. Ichigo needed to know which element was going to ‘bring peace’.

“I don’t know,” Don sounded almost offended in his normal voice again, his eyes opening and his hands dropping back down his sides. “The Gods aren’t to be questioned.”

“Convenient,” Renji chimed sarcastically from behind. The Earth Empire wasn’t the most spiritual of nations, and clearly this had passed down to Renji.

“I need to know,” Ichigo spoke firmly, eyes locked onto Don’s. “Please.”

The Prophet stood, shrugging as he pulled a pair of rounded sunglasses out of his sleeve and placing them over his eyes.

“I’ve told you all I know,” he answered. “The Gods are big on free will. You must figure it out and make your own decisions.”

Don stepped around Ichigo as the Avatar frowned thoughtfully. The Elders taught him that too, but surely a little further guidance couldn’t go astray?

“Where are you going?” Renji asked after the man as he walked back towards his cart.

“Back to the Temple,” Don called back over his shoulder, “to wait in the ruins for my next message. Good luck, Avatar Ichigo.”

They watched as Don picked up the handles of his cart and rolled it away, his white fur collar disappearing with him as he wandered off into the sunset.

Renji huffed after the Prophet. “Weirdo. Not even a ‘thank you very much’ for us saving him.”

Ichigo sighed and shifted his weight uneasily, replaying the prophecy in his mind. It was a lot to take in, so many points to consider.

Rukia took his arm and led him back up the hill.

“Come on,” she murmured softly. “Let’s make camp. We can try and figure this out together.”

The Avatar nodded, exhaling deeply.

He needed to figure this out soon – as much as the line about one element bringing peace piqued his interest, it was the line about a new star joining the night sky that truly scared him.

It meant someone was going to die.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dun dun DUNNN


	3. Air III: Return to Rubble

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ichigo faces the horrors of his past and an impossible prophecy as he and his group continue towards Karakura.
> 
> ...
> 
> “Which question?” Ichigo asked.
> 
> “You already know.”
> 
> “I don’t.”
> 
> “Well,” Zangetsu sighed, “how about a trip down memory lane?”

It was a common belief across the four continents that the sky was the Heavens, and the stars were the Gods and the people lost on Earth, watching over their loved ones below. Becoming a star was an honour; it meant you had done good during your time on Earth to be rewarded with an eternity above.

‘… and a new star joins the night sky…’

That was the line of the prophecy that had Ichigo’s heart beating twice as fast with fear. It meant someone was going to die, someone who was significant to the fight and notably, someone _good._

Instantly, Ichigo’s mind had gone straight to Rukia and Renji, his best friends and only family for the last four years. He couldn’t let them die in his fight.

He thought of Isshin too, but Ichigo didn’t know for sure Isshin was even alive now. If he was, Ichigo sure as hell wasn’t going to let him partake in the final battle when it came. He had lost him before, he wouldn’t lose him again.

“I think you should be more concerned about the whole ‘the Avatar will conquer or perish’ line,” Renji pointed out when Ichigo voiced his fears to him quietly. “You’re hardly safe, Ichigo.”

Renji’s brown eyes were terribly worried, which wasn’t a common emotion for the Earthbender to display – unless it was when fussing over Rukia when she was ill or injured.

The group now sat around the fire, hours after receiving Don Kanonji’s ‘warning from the Gods’. They were uneasy, the message they were given drawing up more anxiety than assurance.

“‘When the night is longest’,” Rukia repeated aloud to the group. “That has to be the Winter Solstice, right?”

Around the group, everyone hummed and nodded.

“Makes sense,” Toshiro sighed from opposite Ichigo. “Waterbenders have more strength overnight; the army will be strongest then.”

_Great._ Just what the Water Kingdom Army needed – more power.

“When is the next Winter Solstice?” Rangiku asked Toshiro. “Around your birthday usually, isn’t it?”

Toshiro nodded. “It will be the twenty-first this year.”

“Twenty-first of December,” Rukia echoed with a sigh. “We’ve got eight months then.”

Ichigo shook his head, not liking that answer at all. It was too soon.

“I can’t learn three elements in eight months,” he told them, trying not to let the panic slip into his voice.

“You’re going to have to,” Toshiro replied, zero sympathy in his tone.

Ichigo glared at the Waterbender across from him but Toshiro held his gaze, unafraid.

“We’ll help you, Ichigo,” Rangiku stepped in quickly, though Ichigo’s glare did not stray. “You’ve got a bender of each element with you, and we’ll have Isshin too soon.”

Ichigo pulled his glare away from Toshiro in favour of glaring now at the ground, shaking his head as he did so.

Everyone made it sound so simple, like he wasn’t trying to master the control of four elements in his lifetime, let alone in just eight months’ time. Even Airbending, which he had been practicing since before he could walk, Ichigo knew he hadn’t mastered every possible venture of it. It was an impossible order from the Gods, but no one seemed to recognise this.

“Well, if that prophecy was right then it should only be one element you have to master, right?” Renji suggested lowly. “If we could figure out that…”

Ichigo frowned. That was another line of the prophecy that was bugging him. One element could bring peace? But they weren’t allowed to know which element?

Seemed like a waste of time to learn all four and yet he might have to, just to ensure he had the correct one in is arsenal when he needed it.

“How would we figure it out?” Ichigo sighed, running his hand through his hair and feeling the stress rise inside him. “It couldn’t be water.”

“Why not?” Rukia asked.

“Because water is the enemy,” Ichigo muttered, glancing up at Toshiro, hoping to see annoyance on his face but was met with his usual impassive expression. “As the saying goes, you can’t ‘fight fire with fire’, or in this case, ‘water with water’.”

“Well then maybe you go for water’s natural opposite,” Rangiku offered, features thoughtful. “Fight water with fire?”

“Water puts out fire, not the other way around,” Toshiro commented dryly, “and by that logic, Kurosaki will need to master Earthbending.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” Ichigo argued quickly. “Earth isn’t the opposite of water.”

“No,” Toshiro agreed, snark once again in his voice. “It’s the opposite of air, which if you actually listened to the prophecy and weren’t such a deluded idiot, you would know is the real threat here.”

Ichigo was on his feet in an instant, air circulating at his feet and hands threateningly. Toshiro didn’t react, but the rest of the group did, tensing. Ichigo kept an eye on Rangiku too, because he knew she would step in to protect the little brat.

“What are you suggesting?” Ichigo hissed at Toshiro, silently daring him to speak ill of Air Lord Aizen again.

“‘The winds will show their true power’,” Toshiro recited from the prophecy. “Surely you don’t think Gin is capable of that?”

Ichigo made to open his mouth to tell Toshiro just how much of a dumbass he was, but no sounds came out. In truth, that line bothered him too. What winds? Or worse, _whose_ winds?

Rukia grabbed Ichigo’s arm and forced him to set, relinquishing the air power flowing around him threateningly.

“Maybe the winds is you, Ichigo,” she tried to calm him. “Maybe that’s the element that’s going to bring peace? It’s your strongest, after all.”

Ichigo exhaled deeply, trying to calm himself. Rukia had a good point, but Ichigo didn’t believe it. The way the prophecy was worded implied that the ‘winds’ was the threat, not the solution.

“That’s a dangerous suggestion,” Toshiro spoke again, since he apparently didn’t know when to shut up, “and not just because it’s wrong. You can’t take a gamble on the one element you’ve already mastered. You’re the Avatar; you have to learn all four elements.”

“But he only needs one,” Renji pointed out again.

“I don’t think that’s what the prophecy meant,” Toshiro rebutted.

“Then what did it mean, oh Enlightened One?” Ichigo spat.

He was just about sick of Toshiro and his bullshit. He spoke like he was some genius who knew everything but he wasn’t. He called Ichigo an idiot but he was the stupid one. No one in their right mind would accuse Aizen of the things he did, and no one with a brain would question the meaning of a prophecy sent from the Gods.

Toshiro seemed to deflate slightly too then, and Ichigo felt a slight smirk pull at his lips when he realised Toshiro didn’t know the answer to that either.

“I don’t know,” the Waterbender admitted softly, “but I do know that the Gods created the Avatar for the purpose of having all four elements come together in one person. I strongly believe you will need all four to win this fight.”

Ichigo’s only response was a huff and nobody else seemed to have anything to say back to him either. For several minutes it was quiet, the only sounds the crackling of the fire between them and the occasional nature sounds from the surrounding forest.

Ichigo was in a bad mood, as he seemed to be perpetually these days. Nobody seemed to grasp just how much of an ask this was. He was only nineteen, he wasn’t supposed to be the make or break in the fate of the world.

After a long time, Rukia sighed.

“I suppose we just do our best to teach you all the elements in the time frame,” she murmured. “It will be better to have all four and not need three than to only have one, and it not be the one you need.”

Ichigo’s eyes fluttered closed. He agreed with the logic, but he still didn’t know how he was supposed to master three new elements before the Winter Solstice.

“I agree,” Rangiku added quietly. “We won’t let you do this alone, Ichigo. After Karakura, we can go to the Seireitei and get help.”

“There won’t just be Firebenders there either,” Renji tacked on, noticing everyone (except Toshiro) was trying to cheer Ichigo up now. “The Seireitei is home to many refugees from across the continents. I bet we could find some Earthbenders and Airbenders willing to fight too.”

Ichigo swallowed and nodded. It was a loose, probably doomed to fail plan, but it was plan nonetheless. It was a step in a direction, and that’s what they needed right now.

Ichigo felt Rukia’s arms come around him loosely, and her soft hair in the crook of his neck. At the same time Renji clapped his back and let his hand stay there, squeezing reassuringly. Opening his eyes, Ichigo noticed Rangiku throwing her arm over Toshiro’s rigid shoulders, annoyance on the boy’s face as he crossed his arms over his chest.

“Let’s get to some sleep,” Rukia murmured then, breaking the silence again. “We’ll be in Karakura in a few days.”

Ichigo inhaled and nodded. Yes, that was what he needed to focus on. That was going to be hard enough on its own, simply walking through even if he did find Isshin there.

The group broke for sleep, moving to get ready for bed (read: their sleeping bags laid out on the ground). After a few minutes, they were all slipping into their bags. As always, Rukia and Renji slept close to each other and Ichigo near enough to them, while Rangiku and Toshiro settled further away, but close together.

Like most nights since Junrinan, Ichigo laid awake for hours after the fire had died and the rest of the group slept peacefully, with no concerns about themselves needing to learn more elements than they already knew.

It was almost dead silent, minus Renji’s soft snores and the sporadic owl hoots, but Ichigo laid on his back, staring up at the night sky with wide eyes, thoughts racing and mind whirring with possibilities.

Like all nights, the sky looked gorgeous. The pitch black mixed with navy blue and violet, the light of the Milky Way across the velvet sky. Millions of stars, some brighter than others, stared back at Ichigo, expecting the world from him, waiting for a triumph he could never muster.

Even the moon, which was but a reflective rock above and a notable symbol of the Water Royals, seemed to be watching Ichigo carefully, waiting for him to make his move, waiting to crush him easily.

“Why me?” Ichigo hissed at the sky, voice low as not to wake the group.

_“Because you’re a protector.”_

Ichigo groaned and rolled over, blocking his ears. He knew that voice. It sat firmly in the back of his mind and only chimed in to annoy him.

It was the voice of Zangetsu, the previous Avatar. It had been sometime since Ichigo had heard it last, but he always seemed to be listening.

“Not you again,” Ichigo whispered back. “Go away, Old Man. I’ve got a lot on my mind”

_“I think it’s time you came to see me again, Ichigo.”_

Ichigo huffed and ignored the call. No, he was grumpy; he wasn’t going on any spirit adventures tonight.

Alas, Zangetsu was persistent, repeating his request loudly in Ichigo’s mind, over and over until Ichigo gave way.

Huffing and muttering complaints, Ichigo sat up and pulled himself out of his sleeping bag.

He stalked away from the camp and towards a large boulder on top of the hill that overlooked his sleeping friends below and down the other side of the hill where they had met Don Kanonji.

Manipulating the air at his palms and pushing himself up, Ichigo shot up and landed gracefully on top of the boulder.

“This better be good, Old Man,” Ichigo huffed, sitting atop the rock under crossed legs. He balled his hands into fists and pressed them together in front of him, his knuckles interlocking.

The monks at the Northern Air Temple had taught him to meditate. It was supposed to be peaceful and particularly helpful in knocking down the mental barriers Airbenders faced when learning the craft. For Ichigo though, it was a time of annoyance mostly, because he had to spend it alongside the previous Avatar, who was a pain at the best of times.

Ichigo glared at the stars one last time before closing his eyes. He let his body relax, his mind emptying of thought for a moment.

“Welcome back, Ichigo.”

The Avatar opened his eyes again.

He didn’t like where he had to go to meet Zangetsu.

As the Avatar Cycle went in the order of air, fire, earth, water and around again, Ichigo being an Airbender originally meant that the previous Avatar had been a Waterbender. It certainly hadn’t saved him when the previous Water King, Gin Ichimaru’s father, had killed him before the war.

Regardless, every time Ichigo meditated to meet Zangetsu, he found himself in a regal palace, made entirely from ice. He knew, now having seen it from the outside, that this was the Royal Palace in Junrinan, obviously prior to it being destroyed.

When Ichigo opened his eyes, he found himself sat on the floor of the throne room as usual, Zangetsu sitting opposite him. He was preserved as a middle-aged man, probably around the same age as Ichigo’s father. His hair was ebony black but his eyes were blue like the sea. He wore black robes that swamped his form, only broken by the ripped white collar that stuck out the top. He had almost-clear visor type sunglasses too, and seemed to wear them, even inside at night.

“You know I hate it here,” Ichigo shivered. He couldn’t physically feel the cold of the ice walls and floor in the Spirit World but the place had always given him the chills – evil ebbed in its walls.

Zangetsu hummed.

“You’re not stuck here,” the man pointed out calmly, his tone deep and even. “You didn’t die here.”

“Didn’t I?” Ichigo raised an eyebrow.

Technically, he was Zangetsu. The Avatar was reborn time and time again. Zangetsu was his past life.

“Even so,” Zangetsu sighed. “This place is important. If you were open to exploring, you would discover endless information about the fight ahead.”

“Is that why you brought me here tonight?”

“It is.”

Ichigo raised an eyebrow at the old man, waiting for him to explain further but he didn’t, seemingly waiting for Ichigo to do the same.

“Well?” Ichigo prompted.

“It’s not my job to ask questions,” Zangetsu told him. “I am here to help you answer them. Tell me Ichigo, what questions do you have tonight?”

Ichigo rolled his eyes hard.

“How about why the Hell did you bring me here?”

Zangetsu eyed Ichigo up opposite him, as if still trying to make something of his successor.

“You asked, ‘why me?’,” Zangetsu answered at last. “‘Because you’re a protector’, I told you. Then you said you had a lot on your mind.”

This was just repeating what Ichigo already knew, and thus this visit to the Spirit World was a pointless as it was tedious.

“I am not a protector,” Ichigo muttered back. “The Gods made a mistake.”

The Gods were almighty, but that weren’t smart. They had picked Ichigo, the worst possible candidate, for the role of the Avatar. He couldn’t live up to it. He hadn’t even lived up to the meaning of his own name when it mattered most.

_Ichigo._

In the ancient tongue of the Air Realm, it meant ‘one who protects’. Ichigo hadn’t been able to protect anyone he loved in the past, so what made the Gods so sure he could protect everyone now?

“The Gods don’t make mistakes,” Zangetsu answered calmly.

“They do,” Ichigo argued. “At the very least, in letting Gin Ichimaru be born.”

A smirk tugged at Zangetsu’s lips then and he swept up off the floor and floated about the throne room in a uniquely ghostly fashion.

“I met him once,” Zangetsu recalled. “He was just a baby then, innocent and pure. Would only eat dried persimmons. His father and I were once best friends, you know?”

“Before he killed you, you mean?”

“Regrettably, yes.”

“Seems like another oversight from the Gods, don’t you think?”

“It was my error,” Zangetsu smiled sadly. He had stopped in front of a large portrait, the last in the row of over a dozen. It was a man around his age, but with much greyer hair and piercing pale blue eyes. He wore royal attire, including a crown. Ichigo knew that was the Water King before Gin, the one that had started the war. “I tried to ignore what he was becoming. I refused to think of him as evil when he was clearly that.”

“I won’t make that mistake,” Ichigo said confidently. He had no problems believing Gin was evil.

Zangetsu turned to look at Ichigo again, in a way that said he didn’t quite believe him. Ichigo felt scrutinised under those blue eyes. Why was it that Waterbenders had the most soul piercing of eyes?

After a moment, Zangetsu moved on, walking past the tall portraits of past Water Kings and Queens.

“The prophecy you heard tonight,” Zangetsu drawled as he walked. “I suppose that is what is on your mind.”

“Do you have any answers for me?” Ichigo answered with a question of his own. He suspected not, if his previous encounters with the former Avatar were anything to go off. Zangetsu was vaguer than any of the monks Ichigo had ever met, and that was a true achievement.

“I don’t,” Zangetsu answered predictably. “I can’t tell you about the future, Ichigo. I can tell you about the past, however.”

“That’s not helpful.”

“I think you would be surprised.”

“Pray tell.”

“Tell you what?”

“About the past,” Ichigo shot the man a glare. He was being deliberately unhelpful. “About how that can help me understand the prophecy.”

“Ichigo, you already know the answer to one of your biggest questions about the prophecy,” Zangetsu told him, expressing far more patience than Ichigo really had time for. “It’s locked in your past, but you refuse to acknowledge it, just like I refused to acknowledge when my friend became evil.”

Ichigo, who was mid eye roll, snapped his gaze back to do his predecessor. Zangetsu was close again, hovering above Ichigo, his eyes staring almost through him.

“Which question?” Ichigo asked.

“You already know.”

“I don’t.”

“Well,” Zangetsu sighed, “how about a trip down memory lane?”

Frowning after Zangetsu as he floated back towards the very first portrait in the row, Ichigo’s eyes widened when that portrait suddenly opened, like a huge door.

This was new. Never had they left the throne room during Ichigo’s visits.

Bright light poured out from behind the swung open portrait door, illuminating Zangetsu to the point that Ichigo realised he wasn’t totally opaque. He was a ghost, but he hadn’t been transparent until now.

Ichigo stood slowly and approached the door with unease. Zangetsu waited there for him, expression emotionless as he floated in the light.

Rounding the door, Ichigo was immediately blinded by the bright light. He winced and held his arm up to his eyes, trying to shield the glare. It was likely looking directly into the sun, and he couldn’t make out what was through the door.

“Go on, Ichigo,” Zangetsu encouraged gently from behind. “In there, one of your questions may be answered.”

Sighing, Ichigo stepped forward into the light. The further he walked in, the more sounds he heard. Panicked screams, the sound of metal clanging against metal – it was a battle.

Bracing himself, Ichigo took another careful step forward, and the brightness dimmed slightly, to the point Ichigo could make out shapes and shadows, of figures fighting in the fray.

Something flew by him, like a body falling near his feet, and Ichigo gasped, stepping back. He choked instantly on dust, coughing it up only to choke more. His eyes went wide with horror. It wasn’t the bright light that was stopping him from seeing, but a dust storm.

Exactly like-

_Gods, please no._

Ichigo heard his own scream, but it hadn’t come from him and it had been an octave higher than his voice now. Whipping around, Ichigo saw a body go flying and a moment later, a burst of wind shot past him, clearing the dust.

Ichigo wiped his eyes and his face crumpled at the sight. He’d seen this before.

He was in his own memory, of the day Karakura was attacked.

Opposite Ichigo stood a fifteen year old version of himself. Tall even then, but his face was still rounded with baby fat. Horror was etched on his face as he saw the scene around him, his home town littered with the dead bodies of his friends and neighbours.

The real Ichigo’s breath caught as the younger him tripped on his own sister and lifted his head to make the heartbreaking discovery. He closed his eyes and shook his head, refusing to watch the rest of the scene play out.

“Get me out of here!” Ichigo screamed to Zangetsu, though he didn’t know if he followed him in or not. “I don’t want to see this again, get me out!”

_“No, Ichigo,”_ Zangetsu gravel voice was back inside Ichigo’s head again. _“You must remember.”_

Another familiar scream was heard and Ichigo’s eyes shot open, his head snapping up. The younger him ran into the house and suddenly Ichigo was inside it too, standing behind his younger self as they watched the Water Army Captain, Byakuya Kuchiki, loom over their terrified mother.

“I will only ask once more, Mrs Kurosaki,” Byakuya told her, voice as calm as it was cold. “Tell me where the Avatar is, and perhaps I’ll let you live.”

“I don’t know who the Avatar is,” Ichigo’s mother cried, lying to protect her son.

“I don’t want to see this,” Ichigo grasped his heart, feeling it pounding. Tears were in his eyes. He couldn’t see this, not again.

_“Look at him, Ichigo,”_ Zangetsu’s voice echoed in his mind.

Ichigo tried, he did. But every time he raised his eyes to see the man’s back, knowing he was about to turn, Ichigo looked away. He couldn’t see anything with the hot tears in his eyes.

“I need to get out,” Ichigo shook his head, panic overcoming his entire body. “I need to-”

_“Stay, Ichigo.”_

“My sources tell me he lives here in Karakura, and it’s not a very big town. I am certain all the residents would have known him.”

“I have to get out,” Ichigo breathed, choking as he did. His hands crossed over his chest and gripped onto the opposite arms, trying desperately to hold himself together.

_“No, Ichigo.”_

“Ichigo! Run!”

Ichigo’s gaze shot up to see his mother’s pale face, and the brown eyes of her killer as he turned. It was too much.

“I have to go!” Ichigo screamed, ripping his crossed arms back across his chest and his whole body jerked, ripped from the scene.

The Avatar sat atop a boulder, under the silently twinkling night sky, panting heavily with his head hung. His eyes were wide, trying to register the grey rock beneath him, trying to comprehend his present.

Tears were in his throat and down his cheeks and neck, falling to the rock below. His breathing was ragged, a series of gasps that never ended.

Shock had well and truly overcome him, and all Ichigo could do was sit there, frozen and unable to breathe.

It took several minutes to get himself onto his back, lying down. He wasn’t expecting to see that tonight. He only saw it in his nightmares but it was never so detailed. Tonight, it was like he was there again.

He had choked on the dust in the air. It had been so real.

Overhead, the stars sparkled. The mocked him as always. The Gods laughed at him, enjoying the show.

_“Come back when you’re ready,”_ Zangetsu’s voice filtered over the screaming in Ichigo’s mind to tell him that and Ichigo screamed louder.

Ready to see his mother die? He would never be ready for that.

* * *

The prophecy ate Ichigo alive, every day gnawing at his brain. Yet no closer did he get to a certain answer.

Occasionally they talked about it as a group, usually when someone happened to have a thought while they walked on towards Karakura and decided to voice it. Ichigo avoided talking about things in front of Toshiro where possible, but it was difficult because he always seemed to be around.

Even a few nights ago, when Ichigo had finally managed to climb down off his boulder and return to his group. Toshiro of course had been awake, sitting up in his sleeping bag, his face as pale as the quarter moon overhead.

“What happened to you?” he asked, seemingly alarmed as Ichigo stalked out of the darkness, looking beyond dishevelled.

Toshiro was the last person Ichigo wanted to see in that moment and he even had the gall to look concerned.

“Mind your own business,” Ichigo had snapped back before falling face first onto his sleeping bag, his body still shaking, tears still in the back of his throat.

It was only a minute or so later that Ichigo felt Rukia’s small hand shaking his shoulder gently, asking him what was wrong. Ichigo had ignored her but he couldn’t have stopped the trembling of his body if he tried. Rukia had sighed but she remained patient with him, her hand rubbing soothing circles into his back until he eventually managed to fall asleep out of pure exhaustion.

She had tried asking him again in the morning, pulling him aside for a bit of privacy while the others packed up camp but Ichigo couldn’t tell her.

Still, it was in Ichigo’s mind, flying around beside lines of the prophecy, filling him with anxiety and unease.

The Gods weren’t kind – he knew he was going to have to return to the memory sooner or later. Well later, if he had a say in things.

Instead of thinking about the memory or anything Zangetsu had said to him, Ichigo focused on the present and the present was getting himself and his group to Karakura to find his father, and to unravelling the riddle that was Don Kanonji’s message.

“Did we ever figure out what the whole ‘when the moon turns blue’ bit was all about?” Ichigo asked to no one in particular as they walked.

They were approaching Karakura, and Ichigo’s nerves were getting the best of him. He hoped to distract himself with more prophecy chat, even if Toshiro had something stupid to say.

In fact, Ichigo was kind of hoping he would, just for something else to think about, just to have someone else to get angry at.

“Blue moons are thing, aren’t they?” Renji shrugged. “When’s the next one?”

“Blue moons don’t mean the moon actually turns blue,” Rukia informed him. “It just means there are two moons in a calendar month.”

Renji chewed his lip thoughtfully. “Maybe that’s what the prophecy meant?”

“I don’t think so,” Ichigo sighed. “‘When the moon turns blue’ suggests to me it’s actually going to turn blue.”

“Dust or smoke particles in the atmosphere can make a moon look blue,” Toshiro chimed in from the back.

Ichigo stuttered on his steps, remembering the dust from his memory the other night. He swallowed, and continued on walking.

“Great, so general battle atmosphere,” Ichigo muttered.

“I suppose,” Toshiro hummed. “Especially since dust and smoke is likely to be blown around, with _the winds_ showing their true power and all.”

It was intended as another low blow for poor dead Aizen, but Ichigo gritted his teeth and ignored it. Dust and smoke were likely to be at the final battle, because there were would be Airbenders and Firebenders, or at least just Ichigo who was soon to be fully capable of both elements. Being the bigger man wasn’t easy, since he imagined himself strangling Toshiro with no trouble, but Ichigo walked on, letting the comment slide.

Maybe when they found Isshin, since he apparently was a ‘father’ to Toshiro, he would pull the brat into line.

* * *

Finally, the day came. Well, it was actually night time now, the group unanimously deciding it would be safer to walk through the abandoned towns leading to Karakura and eventually into Ichigo’s hometown itself under the cover of nightfall. It was risky as it was to return to a known place of residence of the Avatar; the possibility of Water Soldier’s was high.

The terrain became familiar and very flat as they reached the neutral territory between the Air Realm and the Fire State. They were actually quite close to the Northern Air Temple, it was just another couple days walk North-East of Karakura, but Ichigo doubted they’d have time for a visit since their next stop was in the opposite direction. It didn’t matter, there wasn’t much left of the Northern Air Temple if the rumours were true – it was yet another victim of the Water Kingdom’s war on the world.

The group passed through the neighbouring towns, small like Karakura, and crushed just as easily. It was hard to see all these towns that Ichigo remembered from his childhood, torn apart by a homicidal maniac with an entire army behind him.

Ichigo grew very uncomfortable because the more they walked through them, the more their ruins reminded him of what he was going to see in Karakura. He had never seen the final outcome, having run away when he was told and never returning to see what had come of it.

Many of the towns they walked through had been entirely abandoned – or had had no survivors more likely – but clearly someone had returned. Along the outsides of the towns, many graves lined the town walls. Grass had long since grown over the dirt, but hundreds of little wooden monuments stood up out of the Earth, some with engravings, others blank. Ichigo hoped that Karakura would be the same – he hoped that someone had turned up to bury his mother and sisters.

The group was silent walking through, but they stopped at each town they walked through to observe a moment of respect for each towns’ victims.

Notably, Rukia was the most quiet. After all, it had been her brother and his troop that had inflicted this damage.

Unfortunately, Toshiro had something to say after they left the fourth destroyed town in a row.

“At the risk of having my head blown off,” he spoke quietly, and Ichigo knew he was about to say something terrible. “The damage to these towns doesn’t look to be caused by water.”

Even now, as they walked through gravesites of Water Kingdom victims, this asshole was going to deny it.

“I advise you to shut the Hell up,” Ichigo warned him, refusing to look back. “I was there. I remember.”

“You remember water?” Toshiro followed up.

Ichigo swung around. He was no longer able to be the bigger man.

“I remember the Water Kingdom soldiers explicitly. You have no idea how recent the memory is in my mind,” he hissed, the memory was burning in him from the other night. It was worse seeing himself, knowing what the fifteen year old was discovering step by sickening step. “I remember Byakuya Kuchiki standing over my mother. I remember the evil in his brown eyes.”

Rukia’s eyes snapped to Ichigo’s and even Toshiro stared at him in surprise.

“Ichigo…” Rukia murmured. She looked scared of him, but also scared for him. “My brother had grey eyes.”

“Your brother was Byakuya Kuchiki?” Toshiro turned to her in surprise, and Rukia nodded.

“I was adopted, but yes,” she told him before turning back to a stunned Ichigo.

Ichigo replayed her words in mind and frowned, shaking his head disbelievingly.

“N-no,” Ichigo stuttered a bit. “He had brown eyes. I remember.”

Rukia seemed lost for words, like she didn’t want to argue it with him but she needed to.

“Rukia’s right,” Toshiro added, voice gentler than it usually was, like he too was being cautious now. “I met him. His eyes were grey. Brown eyes are extremely rare in Water Kingdom.”

Ichigo stared at them, mouth agape, no argument coming but he so wanted to. They glanced at each other in concern and then back to him. Rangiku and Renji looked on with unease too, and in fact Rangiku had her hands on Toshiro’s shoulders as if ready to pull him from Ichigo’s line of fire if he attacked.

All Ichigo could think about was his memory walk the other night. He remembered brown eyes, so clearly. He remembered the Water Kingdom uniform and the dark hair, but the brown eyes he remembered clearer than anything else. They were the eyes of a killer.

“Y-you’re wrong,” Ichigo shook his head with firmness. “I remember. Byakuya Kuchiki killed my mother.”

With that, he stalked off, leaving the others to scramble after him if they wanted to keep up.

They did, and thankfully they were quiet about it.

Ichigo would not be manipulated by Toshiro now, he would not make Zangetsu’s mistake of thinking the Water Kingdom had any innocence about them.

Thankfully, neither Toshiro nor Rukia brought it back up with him. Though, at one point he heard them whispering between each other.

“You met my brother?” Rukia asked Toshiro quietly from behind Ichigo. The Avatar bit his lip and pretended not to hear, but he was listening intently.

“Briefly,” Toshiro murmured. “I’ll tell you about it later.”

Ichigo inhaled and set his jaw to calm himself as he walked. The last thing he needed was Toshiro corrupting Rukia with lies about her brother, or worse, upsetting her with the truth.

Still he bit his tongue and they walked on, moving closer and closer to Karakura as the minutes and hours continued to tick over, slower now with the tension in the air.

In spite of that, they reached Karakura all too soon.

Even in the dark, Ichigo could see it too was lined with grave after grave. Ichigo stopped to stare for a moment at the graves, many of which had unmarked wooden monuments, and the few that had names carved in.

It was tempting to walk through the graves, hoping to find his mother and sisters’ names together, so he knew they had been buried with respect and by someone they knew, but he feared not finding them. He didn’t want to know they could be under any of the blank monuments, or under none of them at all, lost somewhere else entirely.

Ichigo’s eyes wandered to the entrance of Karakura. Though he had been expecting it, it stung to see what his hometown had become; he had returned to rubble.

A wooden wall used to surround the small town, the gate of which was always left open for travellers and newcomers, but today it was destroyed. Very little of it was still standing, and that meant Ichigo could see into the town. Like the wall, the houses were also crushed and blown apart, covered in dirt. He wondered if, once he walked further in, if he would find his house in the same manner, or somehow still standing.

“Take as much time as you need,” Rangiku’s voice was gentle. Ichigo had expected that to have been Rukia’s line, but he supposed she had backed off, worried about upsetting him further.

Nodding, Ichigo swallowed and stepped forward, and then again and again, until he was walking properly towards the town.

_“Stay strong for me. I love you, Kiddo.”_

Ichigo’s heard Isshin’s voice in his head and moved towards the town. He had to focus on why he had returned to Karakura. He had to focus on a future with his father, not the past.

Braving himself to step inside the wall boarder, Ichigo exhaled sharply once inside. There was no real wall around Karakura anymore but there was one around Ichigo’s heart and it too was crumbling beneath the weight of what had happened here all those years ago.

He continued on, through the small town. He kept his eyes peeled for any form of life, but he didn’t dare yell out. There could soldiers anywhere.

“What’s the plan?” Renji asked quietly, voice cautious and his eyes alert as they shifted around the town.

“I don’t know,” Ichigo shrugged, starting to feel less certain that he would find his father in the all too still town. “I guess I’ll start with our old house.”

If it was still standing, that was.

In fairness, some houses were. Very few, but more as they got further into the town.

They crept quietly in the dark, following Ichigo’s lead, ready to fight if they had too. Not a sound was heard though, not even from them as they moved.

Ichigo lead them down once familiar streets and finally to his own.

If he tried, he could still hear the sounds of his sisters and their friends playing out on the streets. Karin in particular liked to round up the neighboured kids to play team sports with on the quiet roads.

They walked down the street further, and Ichigo had to stop when he spotted his own family home a few spots up.

It was still standing… Well, partially.

The front of the house that had once been the kitchen and living room, where Ichigo’s mother had been held a knife point, was well and truly blown to pieces. Still, the back of the house which comprised mostly of bedrooms seemed to still be, for the most part, intact.

Concentrating, Ichigo tried to feel for air shifts inside the house to find out if someone was inside but he couldn’t at this distance or from outside the house. No, he would need to go inside to feel that.

Stopping at the porch steps, Ichigo froze. He remembered, all too recently, a teenage version of himself running down these steps and away from the house, hearing his mother’s scream and to never see her again.

“Go on,” Renji encouraged him through a whisper. “We’ve got your back out here.”

Ichigo breathed deeply, steeling himself to enter and nodded back to his friend.

Carefully, he stepped up onto the porch and with one final glance back at his friends (excluding Toshiro), Ichigo entered the house.

As he stepped over the rubble in the entrance and navigated into the hallway, he continued to feel the air for shifts of movement. It was mostly futile because he could already see the bedroom doors up ahead were closed and Ichigo couldn’t feel through walls.

The part of the house he was in now was almost fully intact, minus the decrepit state it was in from not being maintained for four years, and also likely from weather damage since half the house was open.

Ichigo reached the first bedroom that had once been his sisters’ shared room. He placed his hand softly on the handle, counted himself down from three and then opened the door quickly, slipping into a fighting stance under the threshold.

The room was empty and a mess. It smelled damp too, and Ichigo would make sure to mention that to Toshiro when he questioned the lack of water damage again.

Ichigo turned to leave but something caught his eye – boards over the windows. Now Ichigo knew for sure that was not how those windows were left four years ago, meaning someone had boarded them up after the battle.

Isshin. It had to be – who else would bother? None of the other houses appeared to have boarded up windows.

Motivated to continue, Ichigo moved further into the house. The next bedroom was his parents’ room and he entered it in much the same manner. It too was empty but a mess and Ichigo didn’t linger. He didn’t want to see if any personal items of his mother’s remained or if they had been stolen over the years.

The last bedroom was his own, and Ichigo hesitated at the door. After finding his parents’ room empty, his hope had dropped again. Either Isshin was in this room or he wasn’t, and if he wasn’t Ichigo didn’t know where else he’d be, even if he was in the vicinity.

Steeling himself once again, Ichigo sucked up his fears and burst swiftly and silently into the room.

He was met with a growl and a large flame being pointed at him, a man in a low stance inside the room, ready to pounce.

Ichigo drew up air for his own attack instinctively but he stuttered in his movements, recognising the face half lit by the flames.

“Dad,” Ichigo breathed, feeling a wave of emotion crash over him.

The man blinked, recognising Ichigo then.

“Ichigo?”

It sent Ichigo over the edge as he nodded, taking further steps into the room and closer to his father but the emotion tripped him up. The Avatar’s knees gave out and he collapsed, caught quickly by a familiar strong arm. A sob left his body as the room was plunged into darkness, the flame extinguished in Isshin’s had.

“My boy,” Isshin murmured, voice but a croak. “You came home.”

Ichigo nodded against him, crying in the dark.

He had hoped when he reunited with his father, he would be able to show his father his emotional strength but Ichigo crumbled when faced with the situation in real life. His father said his name and it was all it took to break him. Maybe it was the memory of his mother’s death so vividly in his mind, but Ichigo had _needed_ his father tonight.

Isshin lowered them to floor, and held Ichigo tightly as he tried to shush and calm him. Ichigo did his best to stop but he couldn’t.

“You’re alive,” he cried, still trying to believe it even as pressed his ear to his father’s chest and heard his heart beating quickly.

“I am,” Isshin assured him, his arm tightening over Ichigo. “I am here with you, my son.”

Ichigo hiccupped and nodded, breathing deeply and trying to regain his emotion.

Isshin was warm, just as Ichigo remembered, his body still burly with muscle. Ichigo wondered what he would look like in the light – was his hair grey now? Or still ebony black like Karin’s? Were his eyes still bright amber? Or had they dulled with time and exhaustion?

It wouldn’t matter. It would never matter, because all that did matter was the fact he was alive and well and would remain so now that Ichigo would be around to ensure nothing happened to him.

Finally, Ichigo had his father back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YAY ISSHIN LIVESSS! Also a big happy birthday to my fave fictional dad for last week (10th December)
> 
> Next chapter I promise to explore Toshiro in more depth (another belated birthday chapter). Stay tuned~


	4. Fire I: Breaking Illusions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ichigo reunites with his father, and learns more than he bargained for.
> 
> ...
> 
> “He challenged the wrong person,” the captain stated simply. “He used his Waterbending to try and stop them. He was branded a traitor and was punished for it.”
> 
> “He was nine,” Ichigo reiterated, as if this fact negated Isshin’s explanation.
> 
> Isshin sighed. “That didn’t matter.”

Isshin was alive.

Ichigo hadn't felt such relief in a long time.

He hadn't had a parent in four years, hadn't had a father in nine. Tonight, seeing Isshin in the flesh, feeling his arms around him and his beating heart in his chest, Ichigo felt safe. It was a weight off his chest, a warmth in his heart.

That sat quietly on the bedroom floor for possibly hours, just basking in their reunion, feeling all the emotions roll over them.

He had forgotten completely about his friends, but eventually Renji’s familiar voice called softly up the hall.

“Ichigo? Everything alright?”

Ichigo leaned off Isshin, wiping his tired and wet eyes.

“Yeah,” he called back, a slight chuckle in his throat. Yeah, everything was alright now.

That’s all he said, but Renji seemed to know.

“Okay,” Renji’s voice was closer now, just outside the door. “Uh, the sun is coming up though, so we might need to make a move soon.”

The looming danger of daylight was enough to sober up Ichigo as he straightened suddenly, and Isshin too seemed to stiffen.

“Soldiers frequently run patrols through the area during the day,” Isshin whispered urgently. “You need to get out of here.”

Ichigo’s eyes widened. He knew it was likely that Gin Ichimaru would have had his soldiers stationed around Karakura, but hearing it in his father’s urgent tone made it worse.

“Where can we go?”

“I know a place.”

Nodding, Ichigo hurried to stand. There was a pale light coming through the unboarded but still intact glass of the windows, and Ichigo could see his father slightly better now. His hair was still black, though a few grey roots were coming through. His eyes were glassy, but amber – oh so beautifully amber. Flames danced inside them like they no doubt danced in his soul.

Isshin grunted as he pulled himself up too and he knocked his arm as he did so, causing him to hiss in pain.

“You’re injured,” Ichigo realised, reaching for the arm to take a look.

“It will heal,” Isshin winced, holding his shoulder which Ichigo realised was sticking out at an odd angle. Dislocated, maybe even broken.

“What happened?”

“Looters about a week ago or so,” Isshin grimaced. “Came overnight while I was visiting and we had a slight disagreement over whether or not they could have your mother’s pearls.”

Ichigo’s eyes went wide, remembering the looters from a few days ago, ransacking Don’s cart. It had to have been them.

“We met them,” Ichigo gritted his teeth. “They had an Airbender.”

Isshin hummed, recalling it too apparently.

“I saved the pearls,” he continued, “but haven’t been able to leave since. I’ve been lying low, trying to avoid the patrolling soldiers.”

Ichigo sighed and took his father’s good arm, leading him back out into the hallway. He’d get him out of here if it killed him.

“You said you know a place?

“A cave up in the hills,” Isshin answered with a sigh, like he wished he could have provided Ichigo with somewhere better to stay. “It’s no home, but it’s been safe for the last three years.”

Ichigo nodded. He spent a lot of nights in caves too – the last thing he had expected was luxury.

Helping his father out over the rubble, they passed Renji who grinned at Ichigo and clapped him on the back.

“Renji Abarai, Sir,” he introduced himself proudly to Isshin. “Your son’s best friend.”

“Self-proclaimed,” Ichigo pointed out causing Isshin to chuckle. For a moment, the looming threat of soldiers was forgotten.

Reaching out with his good arm, Isshin shook Renji’s hand in greeting.

“Strong grip, Renji,” he smirked. “Earthbender, am I right?”

“Absolutely,” Renji laughed.

“Now to my actual best friend,” Ichigo rolled his eyes, as they stepped out onto what was left of the porch. He turned his father to a rather shy-looking Rukia, who bowed low quickly. “This is Rukia.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Rukia.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you too, Sir,” Rukia squeaked from her bow.

Ichigo threw her a confused look. Never had she looked so timid, but then again, never had she met a Fire Army captain. Two people with their group had met a Fire Army captain before however, and Ichigo sighed, knowing the next greeting was inevitable but he still hated doing it.

“And apparently you already know these two.”

He turned Isshin towards where Toshiro and Rangiku stood together, off to the side. Ichigo frowned, seeing their expressions; their eyes were wide, like they couldn't believe what they were seeing, their lips parted as if stuck mid-gasp. Rangiku was holding Toshiro by his shoulders, as she often seemed to do.

Ichigo felt his father’s body still.

For a second there was silence.

Toshiro's face was beginning to contort when Isshin stepped away from Ichigo and opened up his good arm.

"Shiro-chan?"

_Shiro-chan? What in the world-_

Immediately Toshiro closed the gap, pulling himself from Rangiku’s loosened hold and moving swiftly into Isshin’s chest, where he buried his face and hugged his middle tightly. Isshin’s uninjured arm returned the hug and Ichigo stared as he lowered his face into Toshiro’s wild white hair.

“C-captain,” Toshiro’s voice was muffled, and broken by a hiccup. Ichigo stared, watching the Waterbender’s body tremble. Never had he displayed so much emotion, but now he did, possibly more than Ichigo had, and he seemed to be holding back with all his might.

“I’ve missed you,” Isshin murmured in returning, squeezing the shaking Toshiro gently.

Toshiro’s reply was further muffled, to the point Ichigo hadn’t heard it but Isshin must have, because he chuckled and patted Toshiro’s shoulder comfortingly.

He smiled widely as he lifted his head to Rangiku and nodded her over.

Rangiku’s eyes were glassy as she joined the hug. She and Isshin exchanged kisses on each cheek in greeting, as was popular between Fire State citizens.

“We thought about you every day,” Rangiku murmured, her head settling on Isshin’s shoulder as Toshiro was sandwiched between them.

It was a picture of family, and Ichigo pursed his lips together, wondering not for the first time just how these three knew each other. Even Renji and Rukia exchanged perplexed glances as they watched on.

“Not a day went by where I did worry about you two,” Isshin told them softly. “Not that I had to, you have always looked after each other.”

“Of course,” Rangiku grinned as she stepped away from the hug, wiping her wet eyes.

Isshin grinned back at her, and Toshiro made no attempt to pull himself out of Isshin’s chest. The captain didn’t seem to mind though, as he gave almost the same amount of attention to the Waterbending brat as he had to Ichigo.

Not that Ichigo was jealous.

“We met your son,” Toshiro muttered, turning his head so he could rest his cheek and ear against Isshin’s sternum, his voice now clearer. “He’s an idiot.”

Oh, Ichigo was going to strangle that kid. He almost went for it too, but Rukia caught his arm quickly, obviously predicting it.

“Now, now,” Isshin seemed unfazed, patting Toshiro’s back comfortingly. “What have I said about calling people idiots?”

This was like a father disciplining a kid. Again, Ichigo wasn’t jealous of whatever this relationship was.

“To not to,” Toshiro huffed. “Even if it’s true-”

“Wow!” Rangiku chimed in quickly, just as Ichigo pushed Rukia’s hand off him and marched towards the white haired asshole. She threw her arm over Ichigo’s neck and pulled him to her side. “Both of you have the same amber eyes! How didn’t I notice before?”

Ichigo glared at her, while Isshin grinned.

A moment of tension passed before Renji cleared his throat.

“Not to break up… Uh, whatever this is,” he gestured vaguely towards the four of them, “but that sun is coming up.”

That sobered everyone, except Toshiro who didn’t seem to care that they might all be at risk of being spotted by soldiers and didn’t move from Isshin’s hold.

“There’s a cave inside that forest,” the father told them, nodding in the direction of the tree line bordering Karakura. “It’s well hidden, but involves a bit of climbing to get there.”

“What about your injury?” Ichigo asked, turning back to Isshin and forgetting his earlier anger.

“I can take you as close as possible,” Isshin sighed, “but I won’t make it all the way.”

“We’re not leaving you,” Toshiro spoke before Ichigo could, and he craned his neck to look up at the man he was still hugging tightly.

“No we’re not,” Ichigo agreed, voice firm. He couldn’t believe he was siding with Toshiro of all people but he was right. Ichigo had just got his father back, he wasn’t leaving him now.

“Let’s get moving,” Renji instructed. “We’ve got a bender of each element and the Avatar. We’ll get you there, Captain Kurosaki.”

“Call me ‘Isshin’,” the captain sighed. “I won’t endanger any of you.”

“You won’t,” Rukia added quickly. “Once we’re hidden enough I can heal you.”

Isshin didn’t seem so certain, but he was outvoted five to one and eventually had to agree. It was light enough to see each other clearly now, so arguing time was cut short. Toshiro reluctantly let Isshin go as Rangiku gently pulled him away and Ichigo replaced him quickly, slipping under Isshin’s good arm and helping him away from the house quickly.

With the urgency of needing to get hidden, Ichigo didn’t allow himself time to dwell on any emotions, or the fact he was walking out of his now entirely destroyed hometown. As if sensing his feelings, Isshin tapped his arm as they walked swiftly towards the tree line of the forest.

“We can come back,” Isshin murmured. “You can get anything you want from the house.”

Ichigo exhaled and shook his head.

“I don’t want anything.”

He didn’t deserve it. He had let his mother and sisters die.

Isshin squeezed Ichigo’s shoulder with his good arm, forcing the Avatar to stare down at his feet as they walked. How could Isshin forgive him so easily?

The journey to the cave was long and exhausting, tough on their bodies after walking all through the night to Karakura. It was also extremely clear that Isshin was in a lot of pain as they travelled, particularly when they had to climb over boulders and balance over thick tree roots sticking up out of the earth. He tried to brush off Ichigo’s concerns, but the Avatar could see the pain in his eyes and the sweat beading off his forehead.

Once deep within the forest, they had taken a break while Rukia looked at Isshin’s arm. They had all winced as she forced his shoulder back into its socket, but Isshin had only clenched his jaw and scrunched his face through the pain. Rukia spent time trying to heal the part of the bone that was broken and the nerves and ligaments around it, but after an hour or so she started swaying on her feet, exhausted.

“I can go longer,” she argued when Isshin caught her wrist and pushed it away, and as Renji grabbed Rukia’s waist, pulling her back slowly.

“It’s fine,” Isshin tried to assure her but Ichigo could see the pain in his eyes. Toshiro hovered close by, eyes worried, until Rangiku sent him to fetch the bandages from her knapsack.

“I’ll strap it,” she sighed. “Toshiro can create an ice pack. Hopefully that will help with the pain until Rukia can do another healing session.”

“I can use my Earthbending to make the journey flatter too,” Renji added. “I’ll be careful to return the surface to normal after we’ve passed.”

Isshin was reluctant to let them go to trouble for him but Ichigo silenced him quickly. His safety wasn’t negotiable.

Toshiro pulled moisture from the air to make a soft pack of crushed ice which Rangiku wrapped and applied to Isshin’s shoulder before she strapped it in place and his arm to his chest so he couldn’t move it. As much as Ichigo didn’t trust Toshiro, after seeing his earlier reaction and how much Isshin seemed to trust him, he decided to withhold any comments about the boy for now. He would get Isshin to explain how they knew each other when they had a moment of privacy, and then maybe he would know what to make of the strange Waterbender they had found in Junrinan.

Once ready, the group continued on, slower now, towards the cave. Between Renji’s Earthbending, Ichigo’s Airbending, and even at one point, Toshiro’s Waterbending, they got Isshin over the unforgiving terrain while Rangiku and Rukia managed his injury.

The sun was right above them when they finally reached the cave, and by that point they were all too tired to talk, wordlessly going about setting up camp. Isshin’s own set up was already there, and he had a lot of possessions, having obviously been there for some time.

The cave itself was small, on the tight end of cosy, but it was well hidden as promised. Covered in vines, the cave entrance was discreet. The sun beat directly onto the outside rock but inside the cave was dark. Isshin lit a fire and numerous candles with an easy flick of his wrist.

Ichigo stared. He couldn’t wait to learn Firebending off this man.

“Come on,” Isshin gripped Ichigo’s shoulder and led him over to his sleeping bag. “Let’s get some rest and we can talk about everything later.”

Ichigo wanted to protest, but a yawn hindered his argument a little, and Isshin got him to lie down.

“You’re going to rest too, right?”

“Of course,” Isshin murmured. “We’re safe here.”

Sighing, Ichigo laid back on his sleeping bag and stared up at the dark rock ceiling above him. His mind was busy, as it usually was, but he felt lighter now, having his father back.

Turning onto his side, Ichigo watched as Renji’s arm wrapped around an already asleep Rukia and his nose disappeared in her hair as his eyes closed over. Across the cave, Rangiku was slipping into her sleeping bag next to Toshiro, and she cupped his cheek as she hovered over him. Isshin made his way over to them, his hand settling on Toshiro’s head as he spoke briefly to them. Ichigo frowned as he watched their interactions, and they both fussed over Toshiro for a moment, like parents putting a kid to sleep. Toshiro seemed reluctant, but Isshin pressed his palm into the Waterbender’s chest and pushed him back down, shushing him gently.

Rangiku was grinning as she laid down beside the boy and cuddled close to him. Isshin smiled gently down at them before he leaned over and kissed them both on the forehead. It was so soft and delicate, and Ichigo knew, because that’s exactly how Isshin used to get him and the girls to sleep when they were younger.

He spent a few minutes with them before he stood and made his back over to Ichigo, who threw him a questioning look.

“Later,” Isshin reminded Ichigo with a slight smile before giving him the same treatment – a hand in the hair, a kiss on the forehead.

Pouting only slightly, Ichigo huffed, causing Isshin to chuckle. The father was still grinning like an idiot as he pulled his own sleeping bag over to Ichigo and worked his way inside one handed. He laid down beside Ichigo, sighing happily as he did so.

“I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time,” Isshin murmured to Ichigo. “Get some sleep, Son. We’ll talk tomorrow.”

Ichigo sighed and closed his eyes. He supposed he had waited four years, he could wait another night – or day as it was.

Isshin’s hand was back in Ichigo’s hair, stroking gently, and the Avatar felt his consciousness slipping. For the first time in a long time, he felt calm as he fell asleep.

* * *

Ichigo woke to find only Renji and Rangiku still asleep in the cave with him, and the immediate panic of not finding Isshin lying beside him had him rushing to get out of his sleeping bag and out of the cave.

He need not worry though, as he heard Isshin’s voice as soon as he reached the cave entrance.

Outside the cave, it was almost dark again. The sun had set, but the slightest hints of daylight remained in the sky, the stars only just beginning to peak through.

Isshin was sitting on a rock, shirt cut and hanging off his bare shoulder, while Rukia stood behind him, brow furrowed in concentration as she worked more healing magic. Without the shirt, Ichigo could just make out the dark bruising around his father’s injury. His face was grimacing, but he seemed altogether more comfortable than the previous evening.

Toshiro was there too, much to Ichigo’s annoyance, kneeling beside Isshin’s knees and making another ice pack.

“How are you feeling?” Ichigo asked, approaching them.

Three pairs of eyes found him – focused violet, caring amber, unreadable teal.

“Never better,” Isshin smiled at him. “Rukia is a talented healer.”

Rukia blushed a little at the compliment, her response a stammered ‘thank you’. Ichigo couldn’t help but grin at her. Rukia was a fantastic healer, she had saved their asses more times than he could count. He knew she was often frustrated that she couldn’t fight like him and Renji, but she had never been taught how to.

“My brother would never allow it,” she had explained to him once, many years ago. “He believed only men should fight. Women, should they be ‘cursed’ with Waterbending, should only be taught to heal.”

It was on the list of reasons why Byakuya Kuchiki was a vile man. Still, Rukia’s healing abilities were a gift to them all now, as much as she wished she could fight instead.

“A few more healing sessions should do it, Captain Kurosaki,” present-day Rukia murmured, her hands dropping from Isshin’s shoulder, her water disappearing back into the flasks she kept strapped to her hips.

“Thank you, Rukia,” Isshin hummed, rolling the shoulder experimentally and massaging it between his thumb and fingers. “And please call me ‘Isshin’.”

She bowed a little, stepping away. “Captain Isshin.”

Ichigo rolled his eyes, squeezing her shoulder as she passed and disappeared into the mouth of the cave. He turned back to his father to find Toshiro in Rukia’s previous position, strapping the new ice pack in position. The Avatar eyed the boy sharply, but Toshiro ignored it.

He was muttering to himself, in a dialect of the native Water Kingdom language. It was the first time Ichigo had heard him use it, and it certainly didn’t help his trust issues with Toshiro any. Isshin seemed unconcerned however, and in fact he sighed and nodded at one point, as if he understood the foreign language.

Ichigo gawked at them, but Isshin waved him off. After a minute, Toshiro was done. He stepped away from his wrap job and said something else in the unfamiliar language.

“I will, Kid,” Isshin was grinning. “Don’t worry or your hair will go white.”

Toshiro shot him an unimpressed look and even Ichigo pursed his lips at that. Isshin had been back for less than twenty-four hours and already the dad jokes were coming in. He certainly looked impressed with himself as Toshiro shook his head and rolled his eyes before he slipped off the rock.

“I’m going to explore.”

“Don’t go too far,” Isshin ordered firmly, to which Toshiro made a less than assuring hum.

He moved past Ichigo without another word, without as much as a glance in his direction. He passed the cave entrance, instead climbing up the side of it and disappearing over the top of it.

Ichigo whipped back around on his father. “What was he saying to you?”

Isshin sighed, standing off the rock. “He was berating me for getting injured. He’s just worried, that’s all.”

Toshiro? Worried about someone other than himself? _Seemed unlikely._

“And you understood him speaking in that language?” Ichigo pressed.

Isshin hummed. “I can’t speak it back to him very well, but I know what he’s saying to me.”

Ichigo’s brow furrowed. “How? How do you even know him?”

Isshin regarded him for a moment before he grimaced and moved over on the rock, patting the spot he’d opened up for Ichigo to join him. The Avatar did so, curious. He moved to the rock and sat quietly, bringing a knee up to rest his arm on as he waited for the explanation he had been after since Rangiku had revealed to him that she and Toshiro knew his father.

“I was taken prisoner with my troop in Junrinan,” Isshin started, speaking softly. “I spent six years in the Maggots’ Nest-”

Ichigo had heard of the Maggots’ Nest. It was supposedly a high-security prison hidden deep within the icy hills surrounding Junrinan, and it was where the Water Kingdom apparently had kept the very worst criminals. The Maggots’ Nest, like many of the world’s high profile prisons, was built from Sekkiseki stone, a special mineral that bound a bender’s powers. In a cell made from Sekkiseki, a bender is completely powerless.

Ichigo had suspected Isshin to have been held there at first, but when Junrinan fell three years ago, so too had the prison. Ichigo had thought Isshin had been moved before then, to Las Noches in Hueco Mundo as Rangiku had said the rest of the Fire Army had gone.

“-I was the only one kept there once Ichimaru moved to Hueco Mundo,” Isshin continued with a sigh. “At least the only one from the Fire Army. He took the rest of my troop with him.”

“Why did he leave you behind?”

Isshin shrugged. “He probably knew I’d never fight for him.”

Ichigo frowned a little at that, surprised Gin didn’t just kill his dead weight.

“It was the worst place in the world,” Isshin continued quietly. “Dark, cold, the guards were corrupt, often torturing inmates.”

Ichigo didn’t have to wonder if his father had been tortured there – he could see it in his eyes as they unfocused, remembering what had been done to him.

“I’m sorry,” Ichigo whispered.

Isshin smiled weakly as he cleared his throat and Ichigo knew he was trying to be strong in front of his son. The captain shrugged, like it didn’t matter, while Ichigo mentally made a note to find out who was in charge of the aforementioned ‘torture’ sessions, and-

“I know the Water Kingdom language because it was often spoken there,” Isshin murmured, distracting Ichigo from violent thoughts. “I know Toshiro and Rangiku because they were my cellmates.”

Ichigo’s eyes snapped to Isshin’s in surprise. “Your cellmates?”

Isshin grimaced, nodding slowly as his eyes unfocused again.

“They were thrown into our cell a few hours before I was,” Isshin told him, “and they were with me until the prison fell with Junrinan six years later.”

Ichigo frowned deeply, not comprehending his father’s narrative.

Rangiku being imprisoned by the Water Kingdom made sense – even though she lived and worked in the Water Kingdom, she was from the Fire State, and was a bender. Ichigo had no problem believing Gin and his army would have seen her as a threat.

But imprisoning Toshiro? What could he possibly have done?

“But Toshiro is a Waterbender?” Ichigo voiced his doubts. “And he’s a little younger than me. He would have only been about-”

“Nine,” Isshin hummed in agreement.

Ichigo blinked.

_Nine._

Ichigo had recently turned ten when his father left for the war. Across the world, Toshiro had been with the enemy, only a month or so from being jailed, and he’d been nine years old.

“Why would the Water Kingdom imprison a nine year old?” Ichigo asked, voice shocked. “And Waterbender no less?”

It didn’t make sense.

Isshin inhaled deeply, his expression thoughtful as he gave his shoulder another test roll. He seemed to be mulling over his answer.

“He challenged the wrong person,” the captain stated simply. “He used his Waterbending to try and stop them. He was branded a traitor and thrown in prison for it.”

“He was nine,” Ichigo reiterated, as if this fact negated Isshin’s explanation.

Isshin sighed. “That didn’t matter.”

Ichigo threw him a perplexed look and Isshin grimaced. He explained quickly then, that in the early years of the war, the Water King, Gin’s father, had used a flurry of propaganda to get his people behind him. They were brainwashed and forced to fight, and those who refused were killed or imprisoned. Toshiro, even at nine years of age, was the latter.

Ichigo sat on the rock and exhaled as he processed this.

Did this change his perspective on Toshiro? It had to, surely. He had been an innocent kid, one who refused to fight and was imprisoned and tortured because of it.

It didn’t make him innocent of being a snarky brat though, did it?

Isshin continued on, talking about his time in prison with Toshiro and Rangiku, as Ichigo listened. The conditions had been rough; they had no access to food and water other than the bare minimum to keep them alive. They were tortured by the guards, for seemingly no reason but the guards’ entertainment.

“Toshiro was a child, and Rangiku wasn’t an adult yet either,” Isshin smiled sadly at the ground. “I think I became somewhat of a security blanket for them. Every night they would crawl over to me and curl up against me to sleep. We became dependant on each other for comfort.”

Ichigo frowned again. That explained the emotional reunion from them, and why Rangiku had described Isshin as a father figure.

“When Junrinan and the prison fell, all the inmates managed to escape,” Isshin continued. “We decided to go our separate ways but it was the hardest thing I’ve had to do since leaving my family behind in Karakura.”

Ichigo swallowed. Isshin had probably spent his six years in prison longing for the day he would get to come home to his family and a warm home, but all he got was Ichigo and cave.

“Why didn’t they go with you?” he asked instead of voicing his guilt.

“We each had things we needed to do,” Isshin explained, somewhat vaguely, as had the rest of his explanations been. “I had to find you. They had to stay in Junrinan to reconnect with their powers after having them bound for so long. We knew we would find each other again. We would have to fighting the same fight.”

“And you’re sure they’re fighting our fight?” Ichigo pressed his father. “You’re certain they’re on our side?”

“I have no doubt in my mind at all,” Isshin smiled softly at Ichigo, and reached up to pat the Avatar’s head reassuringly. “They’re with us.”

Ichigo sighed deeply and looked ahead, through the trees of the darkening forest. Leaves rustled gently in the low breeze, and somewhere an owl hooted in the early evening.

He wasn’t totally sure he was ready to trust Toshiro and Rangiku so wholeheartedly, but at least he had some assurance now. They had betrayed the Water Kingdom as much as the Water Kingdom had betrayed them. They were not allies.

* * *

It was a week later that Ichigo found himself kneeling on grass in front of three wooden monuments. The names that were carved into them were only just visible now that the Avatar’s eyes had adjusted to the dark.

_Masaki. Karin. Yuzu._

Tonight, under a dark, moonless sky, Ichigo sat beside his father on the graves of his mother and sister.

It had been a decision Ichigo almost regretted, to come down and visit the graves. Isshin had revealed that he knew where the other half of their family lay, and after a week of resting and healing, had felt strong enough to lead Ichigo back through the forest and to the makeshift cemetery in front of Karakura’s thoroughly destroyed gate.

They were due to head off towards the Seireitei the day after tomorrow, and Isshin had urged Ichigo to come say goodbye. The Avatar had agreed, largely because he felt it was something he had to do, as much as it pained him.

Nothing hurt him more than losing his own mother and sisters. Correction, nothing hurt more than knowing their deaths were his fault.

Ichigo stared at the three monuments, his throat tight, his voice forgotten. _Masaki. Karin. Yuzu._

“I arrived in Karakura over a year after the attack,” Isshin murmured softly. “I wish I had been here that day.”

Ichigo was almost glad Isshin wasn’t there, if only for the fact he probably would have died too.

“Were you the one who buried them?” he asked.

“No,” Isshin sighed. “I found all these graves when I arrived. Some had names and some didn’t. Each grave had a personal belonging on top or hanging from the monument, I assume something the deceased had on their person at the time. I think anyone returning to find family or friends found the belongings they recognised and carved the names into the monuments of those graves.”

Ichigo nodded, staring at the monument that had his mother’s name on it.

“Is that what you did?” he asked thickly.

Isshin hummed.

“I found Karin’s red hat first,” he gestured to the grave in the middle. “It was impossible to miss. Yuzu’s bracelet was hanging off her monument, and your mother’s wedding ring I found eventually, hidden under the overgrown grass. I carved their names in, and kept their belongings up in the cave.”

Ichigo bit his lip and gave another curt nod. He was doing his best to keep his emotions in check, to match Isshin who was radiating impossible calmness, but he was slipping.

“Who buried them then?” Ichigo’s voice shook as he asked.

“I don’t know,” Isshin sighed. “I wish I did. I want to thank them.”

Nodding slowly, Ichigo agreed. Whoever had buried all these people had respected the victims and their families, and had probably done so at great personal peril – Ichigo couldn’t imagine the Water King would have looked too kindly on someone showing such kindness in the wake of their destruction.

An arm came around Ichigo’s shoulders and he felt himself pulled into Isshin’s side. Ichigo felt himself stiffen. How could Isshin treat him so warmly after this? Ichigo had been the reason his family was torn apart.

“I’m so sorry, Ichigo,” Isshin whispered then. “I should have stayed to protect you and our family.”

Ichigo stared. This was all backwards.

“It was my fault,” Ichigo managed with a croak.

“It was not your fault,” Isshin told him firmly, and those amber eyes turned on him, pinning him to the spot. “You didn’t ask to be the Avatar.”

“I ran,” Ichigo admitted, feeling the sting in his eyes. “Mum told me to run and I did. I should have stayed and fought.”

“Then you would have been killed too,” Isshin pointed out quickly. “You did the right thing, Ichigo.”

“I was a coward.”

Ichigo stared down at his knees where he knelt, feeling his heart hammering in his chest, the silent tears on his cheeks. Isshin’s arm was still around his shoulder and it tugged Ichigo closer, until he tipped over and fell head first into his father’s lap. Isshin patted his head gently, making a quiet shushing sound, like he was dealing with a child, not his now adult son.

“You need to let go of this guilt, Ichigo. It was not your fault,” Isshin murmured. “Your mother and sisters would be so sad to know you blamed yourself, just as I am.”

Ichigo clenched his eyes shut and turned his face into his father’s leg. He could not believe that. It would always be his fault. He was the Avatar, he was who Byakuya Kuchiki had been looking for that day, he was who his mother had lied to save, only to lose her own life.

“They died,” Ichigo gulped, “because I’m the Avatar.”

“They died because a mad man in a position of power chose to kill them,” Isshin corrected calmly. “You didn’t choose to be the Avatar.”

Ichigo released a shuddering breath and nodded. He’d never let go of his guilt but Isshin was right – there was someone who was even more to blame than him. In fact there were two people – Byakuya Kuchiki and Gin Ichimaru.

They sat in front of the graves for several more minutes, as Isshin murmured quietly to them, speaking to his wife and daughters as if they were really there in front of them instead of up in the night sky, watching them from above. Ichigo stayed silent, eyes closed and head still in Isshin’s lap, listening to the man as he spoke softly. He could even hear the smile in Isshin’s voice when he told the graves about how happy he was to have been reunited with his son and his ‘prison kids’, all the while stroking Ichigo’s hair to comfort him.

It must have been over an hour that had passed before Ichigo mustered the courage to sit up again and look at those wooden monuments. He reached out, feeling the carved name that was his mother’s.

_I’m sorry,_ he told them silently, knowing Isshin wouldn’t want to hear him say that.

“I miss you,” he said instead, voice barely a whisper. “I love you.”

Isshin squeezed his shoulder. Together, they stood and said their goodbyes. It was hard to leave, despite Ichigo not wanting to visit the graves in the first place. Knowing now where his mother and sisters rested, Ichigo found it hard to walk away.

“They’re with you wherever you go, Ichigo,” Isshin assured him as he led them back towards the forest. “They’re in the stars, watching over you always.”

Ichigo sighed. He hated the stars. The Gods were in the stars and this was, above all else, their fault he was the Avatar, and therefore so was anything that had happened because of their decision to choose him for the role. Still, maybe believing that his family were up with the stars, meant Ichigo could find beauty in them.

“I need to tell you something,” Ichigo told Isshin, suddenly remembering Don Kanonji’s prophecy, and in particular, the line about a new star.

He recounted the story of meeting the Eastern Air Temple’s eccentric prophet, and the ‘message from the Gods’ that was given to him, and where the group was leaning with their theories. Isshin also seemed particularly troubled about the line about a new star joining the night sky, but more so he seemed worried about the line involving Ichigo’s pending fate.

‘…the Avatar will conquer or perish.’

Ichigo could hear the worry in his father’s voice as he fretted over it, and the Airbender quickly tried to backpedal and distract him, but the former Fire Army captain was ever focused. He was also disgruntled, apparently unhappy to only be finding out about this prophecy a week after their reunion.

“I won’t lose you,” Isshin told him, as if it were a fact he knew for sure; _denial._ “I won’t allow that to happen.”

“I’m not sure you’ll get to choose,” Ichigo sighed as they made their way back through the forest, up to the cave in the hills. “It will come down to if we can figure out what the one element is.”

“I’m not sure that’s what the prophecy means,” Isshin’s tone was uncertain, thoughtful. “The purpose of the Avatar is for all elements to come together.”

Ichigo huffed. “You sound like Toshiro.”

“Well he’s a smart boy,” Isshin’s voice turned teasing. “He gets it from me.”

It seemed Isshin’s new hobby was to prod Ichigo’s jealously vein and see what kind of reaction he got. Ichigo wondered if Toshiro copped the same treatment.

_“Regardless,”_ Ichigo glared at his father’s back as they trekked through the dark forest. “We’ve all agreed that I will continue to learn all the elements until we can figure out the exact meaning of the prophecy… Even though that seems impossible, given the Winter Solstice deadline.”

Yeah, Ichigo was definitely going to perish.

Isshin paused in his steps, as if hearing Ichigo’s thoughts, forcing him to stop behind him. In the dark, Ichigo felt his father turn on the spot to face him. A warm hand cupped his cheek.

“I wish I could take the burden of being the Avatar off you,” Isshin spoke quietly. “It’s not a fate I would have wanted for you… But I can’t undo what the Gods have decided.”

Ichigo grimaced. He knew it must have been hard for Isshin to experience, so badly wanting to take that affliction off his son’s shoulders instead of watching helplessly from the sidelines.

“It’s okay, Dad,” Ichigo tried to speak bravely. “There’s nothing you can do.”

“Not nothing,” Isshin sighed, turning back around. “Rangiku and I will help you master Firebending, and I’ll be with you for every step after that.”

Ichigo followed his father as Isshin started walking again and smiled weakly in the dark.

Rangiku had been taking Ichigo through more advanced Firebending techniques over the last few days, while Isshin watched on and gave guidance. His shoulder had still been healing, so he was limited to mostly verbal advice for the moment. However, Ichigo had quickly realised that he had underestimated Rangiku’s abilities. The woman certainly kept her cards close to her chest but as Ichigo had since discovered, she was no run-of-the-mill amateur Firebender.

“She’s been training fiercely over the last few years,” Isshin had told Ichigo after a particularly gruelling training session yesterday. “She’s easily as powerful as a Fire Army lieutenant now.”

Ichigo had frowned – through the endless sweat dripping off his forehead – towards where a totally sweat-free Rangiku had sauntered off to glomp an unsuspecting Toshiro. Isshin had said they had stayed in Junrinan to ‘reconnect’ with their powers, and if Rangiku was now powerful enough to equal a Fire Army lieutenant, then just how powerful was Toshiro?

Father and son made it back to the cave with no interruptions to their journey and well before sun up, though it was clear Isshin’s shoulder was causing him some discomfort.

Inside the cave, their friends were asleep, the fire dying out between them.

“I can wake him up if you want?” Ichigo offered happily to Isshin as his father knelt by Toshiro’s sleeping form. “We’ll get him to make you a fresh ice pack for your shoulder.”

Isshin shot Ichigo a look for the snark, but there was a hint of a smirk on his lips, obviously sensing the jealous vein popping again.

“That won’t be necessary,” Isshin whispered before he turned back to Toshiro. “I’m just making sure he’s okay. He doesn’t sleep well.”

Ichigo gave a hum that was only just a hum and not a snort. Toshiro didn’t sleep unless it was right beside Rangiku, but that was probably because he had his guard up around Ichigo.

Even after hearing Toshiro’s story, Ichigo didn’t like the guy. Sure, he was probably not his enemy as far as this war went, but he was still a threat if he turned on them and he was still a pain in the ass. Ichigo hadn’t forgotten his slander against the honourable and _dead_ Air Lord Aizen, and his lack of acknowledgement of the Water Kingdom’s cruelty.

Ichigo sat on the opposite side of the cave, on top of his sleeping bag, and eyed his father murmuring kind words to Toshiro, who was now stirring and muttering.

“Shhh, it’s just a bad dream,” Isshin whispered to the boy. “Back to sleep, come on.”

Ichigo frowned as Isshin pressed the palm of his hand to Toshiro’s chest and shushed him gently. Instantly, Toshiro calmed, settling again. He furrowed brow straightened back out and visibly relaxed under Isshin’s comforting touch.

The Avatar pursed his lips as he watched the scene quietly. After a moment, Isshin removed his hand and adjusted Toshiro’s sleeping bag around his shoulders. He watched the sleeping Waterbender a little longer, before he eventually stood and made his way back over to Ichigo, who bristled as his father smirked at him.

“My affection isn’t pie, Ichigo,” Isshin chuckled quietly as he sat beside Ichigo, and leaned back against the cave’s rock wall. “I have room in my heart for both of you.”

“But he’s a Waterbender,” Ichigo complained, starting to feel like a sulking child as he huffed and crossed his arms over his chest.

“Waterbenders aren’t inherently bad, Son,” Isshin sighed. “No more than any other bender or non-bender.”

“I met one that turned into a fish, Dad” Ichigo stressed. “He was a merman because his heart was cold.”

At least that’s what Toshiro had said anyway – Ichigo wasn’t sure he believed him.

“Well, that can happen,” Isshin admitted, like that was just a thing that happened sometimes, a completely casual occurrence. “It’s rare, of course, and it can happen to benders of all elements.”

“Are you saying I could turn into a sea monster?”

“Well, a ‘sea monster’ is only a fate applicable to Waterbenders, which you will be eventually,” Isshin shot Ichigo a small smirk, “but all elements are dangerous in that way. If a bender lets the element take over their heart or their head, they lose themselves.”

“What do you mean?”

“If a Waterbender lets the water inside them turn their hearts cold, they become merfolk – they lose their humanity,” Isshin sighed. “If a Firebender lets their temper – their fire – burn their hearts, their blood can literally boil.”

“What?” Ichigo asked in alarm. Just- _What?!_

Isshin hummed and continued on. “Airbenders can lose their sanity if they let their air go to their heads, and Earthbenders can turn to stone if they let their stubbornness overtake their minds.”

Ichigo’s eyes were wide and he wasn’t sure they would ever be able to close.

“Renji is screwed,” he managed to murmur, the only though that his mouth managed to capture from the millions zooming around Ichigo’s mind.

Now Isshin laughed at that. None of this seemed to really concern him, and Ichigo was almost ready to believe he was getting his leg pulled.

Isshin assured Ichigo with a clap on the back. “As long as benders have love in their life, they can’t suffer from their own element.”

Ichigo frowned deeply, still at a loss for words or a concrete thought. This was a lot to take in this late at night. He remembered the merman at Junrinan, ‘Yukio’ as Toshiro had called him.

_“Until his parents died and his heart turned cold and he became a merman.”_

“The merman,” Ichigo swallowed. “He became one because he had no love in his life?”

Isshin nodded. “He must have been in a dark place to lose his humanity like that; no one to keep him warm.”

“Keep him warm?” Ichigo echoed.

“Well that’s what love does for Waterbenders to stop their hearts growing cold,” Isshin sighed. “Love keeps them warm, while it calms a Firebender, grounds an Airbender and moves an Earthbender.”

Ichigo thought back through his life, trying to think of the benders he knew and the love that they had their lives. He thought a lot about Rukia and Renji – who were entirely in love though they still refused to admit it. Renji was a stubborn asshole, but Rukia almost always got him to move for her. She wasn’t cold though, far from it.

“When I first met your mother,” Isshin brought him back, his face dopey with a smile as he thought of his wife, “I was so hot-headed. She was… _flighty_ , to say the least. We were young when we fell in love, but I felt true calmness for the first time in a long time. Your mother became so grounded and well balanced. When we had kids, we became entirely stable. There’s no stronger love.”

It played a lot on the stereotypes of benders in their respective elements, but Ichigo remembered seeing those qualities in parents. He remembered his father’s temper and his mother’s often ‘airy fairy’ demeanour, but never were those strains in them more important than their kids – Isshin never turned his anger on them, Masaki never got lost in her thoughts around them.

“Am I flighty?” Ichigo asked with a frown, suddenly aware of his own origin. He was an Airbender, first and foremost.

Isshin’s smirk was back, like he thought this was entertaining now.

“As a kid, definitely,” his father told him with a chuckle, much to Ichigo’s chagrin. “You’d have your head up in the clouds, often forgetful, frequently distracted. Now, I think you get stuck in your own head more often than not.”

Ichigo opened his mouth to argue, but he realised his father was right. He had once ran off as a young kid and got lost for hours. He hadn’t intentionally run away or anything, but he’d seen rabbit and chased it out of the town gate and into the forest. The same forest they were in now, in fact. Perhaps he was a little bit flighty.

“At least I have love in my life,” Ichigo murmured, more to himself than anything. He supposed he always had, even on his darkest days, because he had Rukia and Renji beside him and though he never saw either of them in a romantic light, there was still love there. He was also hyper aware of the love his mother had had for him, given that it had cost them her life. Ichigo had also had hope, that one day he’d find Isshin. He supposed all that counted for love, didn’t it?

He realised then what it meant to have no love in one’s life; no family, no friends, no hope – nothing to fight for. That, Ichigo thought, was a fate worse than death, worse than even being the Avatar. It was easier to understand now, how someone in that position could give up and let their element overtake them.

“I am glad you have made these friends,” Isshin hummed. “No matter what happens to me, I know you’ll still have love in your life-”

“Nothing is going to happen to you-”

“- Especially since you being the Avatar puts at more risk than a normal bender. You have the potential to become a merman, or turn to stone, or even let your blood boil.”

Ichigo’s eyes went wide. “Are you saying I have traits of all benders?”

He was offended by that. He was an Airbender and had only just made his peace with realising he was ‘flighty’, but now he was stubborn, temperamental and cruel too?

Well… Okay, he was stubborn _at times_ , and _occasionally_ hot-tempered. Surely he wasn’t cold, though? He was no Waterbender.

Isshin shrugged, reading his son’s mind and apparently not the least bit concerned about it. He gestured towards Toshiro and Ichigo stilled, realising he was cold, at least towards someone he didn’t trust. In fact he had been all the worst parts of him around Toshiro – he’d been irresponsible, he’d been quick to anger and pigheaded, and he had definitely been unkind.

Toshiro brought out the worst in him.

Or perhaps-

Ichigo shook the thought from his head but it quickly reappeared.

_Or perhaps,_ Ichigo brought out the worst in himself, and he aimed it at Toshiro because he had so much hatred in his heart for Waterbenders. Ichigo frowned and bit his lip as he voiced this to Isshin, his father humming and nodding in agreement.

“Hate is the opposite of love, Ichigo,” Isshin murmured. “It fuels the worst parts of us.”

“I just-” Ichigo swallowed. This pill was far too big for his rapidly constricting throat. “I don’t know how to not hate the people who killed my family.”

Isshin went to open his mouth but Ichigo shook his head and waved him off.

“I know Toshiro wasn’t the waterbender who did it,” Ichigo sighed, “but when I see him, I see Gin Ichimaru on his ice throne. I see Byakuya Kuchiki standing over mum-”

“Byakuya Kuchiki?” Isshin interrupted, repeating the name, looking all too perplexed.

Ichigo saw confusion in the amber eyes frowning back at him. Did-

Did Isshin not know?

“Yeah, he led the Water Army troops that day,” Ichigo breathed. “He was the captain.”

Ichigo winced internally – he realised if Isshin didn’t know this, then he definitely didn’t who Rukia really was yet. He hoped Isshin wouldn’t be too upset about that part.

The hesitant expression was reflected back at him as Ichigo realised Isshin seemed to be processing a thought of a similar nature. He had something he didn’t want to say either, but something that had to come out.

“Byakuya Kuchiki never led the attack on Karakura,” Isshin spoke slowly, as if allowing Ichigo time to comprehend.

“Yes, he did,” Ichigo returned, just as slowly. “I saw him, Dad. I know it was him.”

Ichigo stared at his father as Isshin stared back at him. Ichigo had seen Byakuya Kuchiki that day and he knew that was how he looked because he had seen his pictures in the newspapers and the one Rukia kept at the bottom of her knapsack (Ichigo wasn’t supposed to know about that one but he had seen her crying over it one day). He had also heard the name, not long after the attack, overhearing some passing Fire State citizens they’d met in the forest talking about it.

It was Byakuya Kuchiki that killed Ichigo’s mother that day.

Brown eyes, grey eyes – It didn’t matter _. It was him._

“He didn’t, Ichigo,” Isshin stared into Ichigo’s eyes as he spoke. “Byakuya Kuchiki was in the Maggots’ Nest with us.”

Ichigo stared.

“He-”

“He was in the cell opposite us,” Isshin continued quickly. “He was ordered to take a troop to Karakura and hunt for the Avatar, but he refused to kill innocents.”

“Refused?”

“They killed him for it.”

This was… This was not right. Ichigo’s breath was caught as he tried to process this. Between Rukia and Toshiro, and now Isshin, the issue of Byakuya Kuchiki was becoming less clear in Ichigo’s mind.

“What colour were his eyes?” Ichigo asked then, the words blurted out. At Isshin’s confused expression, he repeated the questions. “It’s important. What colour?”

“Grey,” Isshin answered, still confused. “I distinctly remember the despair in them when they took him away.”

He went on to explain the story further, while Ichigo sat beside him largely in a state of shock while he processed this new update.

Apparently Byakuya had been one of those Waterbenders that refused to fight, at least towards the end of his life. He had been brought into the prison after refusing to kill innocent communities in search for the Avatar. Isshin had spoken to him about it briefly, but Byakuya’s stint in the prison wasn’t long. Shortly after the attack, which he could not have led from his prison cell, he was dragged from his cell and taken away, never to return.

“We covered Toshiro’s ears so he wouldn’t hear the screams,” Isshin recalled, “but he knew what was happening.”

Ichigo wanted to be angry that Toshiro hadn’t told him that, but he knew he wouldn’t have believed him. No doubt Toshiro knew that too and that’s why he stayed quiet.

“What colour are Gin Ichimaru’s eyes?”

“Light blue. Don’t ask me how I know that.”

Ichigo frowned at that. Light blue eyes?

Every propaganda poster and newspaper he had seen had a picture of Gin in the top left, on the background of a crescent moon – as was the Water Royals symbol. He had silver hair that flopped down over his face and his grin was impossibly sinister. His eyes, however, remained shut on every picture.

“Why all the questions about eye colours?” Isshin asked then and Ichigo quickly explained the story of the brown eyes of his mother’s killer.

“If it wasn’t Byakuya Kuchiki who attacked Karakura,” Ichigo started, voice shaking as he spoke, “then who did?”

Isshin looked uncertain. “I don’t know. I never found out.”

Ichigo gulped. If it hadn’t been Byakuya Kuchiki or Gin Ichimaru, who had it been?

Who did those brown eyes belong to?

* * *

Ichigo sat on his chosen boulder quickly. He could not, _would not,_ go to sleep tonight without knowing who really killed his mother.

Luckily, he knew just how to find out. He knew now what Zangetsu had been trying to show him.

“Show me,” he demanded, closing his eyes as his fists came together.

“Are you ready?” Zangetsu’s voice echoed in his mind and Ichigo nodded sharply. “Very well.”

Ichigo felt the warm dust whipping across his face and when he opened his eyes, he found himself sitting on the ground in Karakura, mid-battle.

With more determination this time, Ichigo stood and walked through the battle. He focused; this time he wasn’t going to looking at the younger version of himself, but at the details he might have missed.

Ichigo’s eyes swept the scene, now suspicious of everything.

The soldiers were definitely from the Water Kingdom. Ichigo could see that on their uniforms and he could hear it in their accents. Still, Ichigo noticed, none of them were using Waterbending, either because they weren’t benders (and many soldiers weren’t) or because they didn’t need to.

Toshiro was right about one thing at least – there had been no water damage.

There was, however, a fully-fledged dust storm spinning around and between them. Ichigo felt his heart sink an inch lower. Only an Airbender could do that.

Ichigo followed the younger him into the house, to find a tall man with long dark hair standing over his mother. The Avatar concentrated – not on his mother’s tears, not on her killer’s words, but on how he looked.

Narrowing his eyes, Ichigo found the image presented to him blurring – glitching even. For a moment, the man’s uniform flashed white before turning back to the sea blue of the Water Kingdom’s colours again.

“Focus, Ichigo,” Zangetsu’s voice called out in Ichigo’s mind. “See through his magic.”

The Avatar forced himself to look closer, his vision drilling into focus.

The scene looked real, and Ichigo knew it was, but now the image of the man he once though was Byakuya Kuchiki seemed fake. It seemed like an illusion of sorts.

“Who are you?” Ichigo whispered to the man’s back.

He turned then, as Masaki called Ichigo’s name, and the older Ichigo’s eyes widened. The man who turned was not the man from Ichigo’s original memories, but the Avatar knew he was seeing clearly for the first time.

Long black hair turned to shorter, slicked back brown hair. A blue Water Army captain’s uniform turned to a tightly fitted white coat with a symbol of three air swirls in a triangle on the breast.

Ichigo stared, lips parted, at the man who turned around to look at the younger version of him. Those brown eyes were crystal clear.

Ichigo knew that man. He knew him because he was on the back of the Air Realm’s coin currency. He knew him because there was a portrait of him inside the Northern Air Temple’s gates. He knew him because he was _his king._

The curly hair was gone, and so were the thick, rectangle-framed glasses he once wore. The friendly sparkle in his eyes was now a glint of terror and his famously kind smile was a sinister smirk.

Still, Ichigo knew this man.

This man was Air Lord Aizen.

Ichigo reeled back, the realisation hitting him square in the chest as he gasped.

He broke free from his vision and found himself doubled over and panting on boulder he’d been sitting on. His thoughts were a whirlwind and his was vision blurred. Ichigo felt sick.

_Aizen had killed his mother._

_Aizen was still alive._

Ichigo’s shock and panic quickly turned to fury as he let out a loud and anguished scream. He stood on his knees and threw his arms up as he felt the rage in his belly surge through his limbs. Out of his hands shot fire, high into the sky and incinerating any overhanging branches. Ichigo didn’t even have time to register the power he had just exuded, as Aizen’s face flashed in his mind again and the Avatar fell back down, catching himself on his palms. The sob that left his throat was tormented.

He felt betrayed. Aizen was supposed to be his people’s kind leader. He was supposed to non-violent. He was supposed to be dead.

Instead he was a traitor and a murder, alive and likely searching for the Avatar.

“Ichigo!”

Arms came around him quickly and Ichigo registered his father’s presence.

“It was Aizen, Dad!” Ichigo yelled between his choking gasps as Isshin pulled him down off his boulder and threw him over his good shoulder. “Aizen killed Mum and the girls!”

Isshin didn’t answer straight away. Ichigo lifted his head to see the cave entrance as Isshin rushed them inside. Ichigo was placed down quickly inside as Isshin brought him into his chest for a tight hug.

“I’m sorry, Ichigo,” Isshin whispered, his tone urgent. “You deserve more time to process this, but we have to go.”

Ichigo, still gasping down his own shock and tears, pulled his head back from Isshin’s chest to see the panicked eyes of his father darting around the cave. It was then, when Ichigo looked around, that he saw his friends hurrying to pack up their camp.

“What’s going on?” Ichigo frowned. He shook his head; they couldn’t be dealing with this right now. They had bigger things to worry about then where they slept. “Did you hear me, Dad? Aizen killed them all! He’s evil!”

“Oh he heard you,” a voice drawled from the cave entrance. “We _all_ heard you.”

Ichigo froze as he felt the rest of the group’s eyes snap to the man who spoke. The Avatar didn’t breathe. He now knew that voice. He’d heard it only moments ago.

Slowly, cautiously, Ichigo turned to face it. Brown eyes, slicked hair, a white coat.

“Aizen,” Ichigo breathed.

Beside him were two others, one of which was more than familiar. Gin Ichimaru grinned back, like this was but a fun evening show for him, and another man stood to the side, his covered eyes staring through them. Ichigo recognised him as the thought-to-be-deceased Earth King Tosen.

Aizen smirked at Ichigo, his brown eyes glinting.

“At last we formally meet, _Avatar_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That’s a lot.
> 
> I want to get the next chapter up for IchiHitsu week because we have a #progressscene (see below a joining link for the Seireitei Discord Server if you want to celebrate IchiHitsu week with me 20-26 January!)
> 
> HAPPY NEW YEAR!


	5. Fire II: Waxing Moon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ichigo faces Aizen and comes to terms with some new truths

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is for The Seireitei Discord Server’s IchiHitsu Ship Week – day 3 prompt: Waxing Moon.
> 
> Also, I hate writing fight scenes (yet I almost always include them).

* * *

Ichigo stared into the evil brown eyes in front of him.

He was face to face with someone he had thought to be innocent, someone he had thought to be dead.

“How did you find me?”

“An informant of mine said the Avatar was in this region,” Aizen explained, mouth twitching with amusement. “I could only assume you were heading home to Karakura so we came straight away.”

The looters, Ichigo realised, the ones that had attacked Don Kanonji. The Airbender with them had recognised Ichigo when he had used both air and fire attacks to fight them.

“We almost gave up and turned away,” Gin, the ever-grinning Water King, added from the side, “but then you sent a flare into the sky.”

Ichigo’s heart thudded heavily in his chest. He had been so angry about what he had seen in his vision, he had forgotten about potential soldiers patrolling the towns below – he had shot that fire high into the sky. That’s why Isshin had been frantic in getting him back inside.

“It was all too easy,” Aizen sighed, like he was disappointed by that though the glint in his eyes told another story.

“You killed my mother,” Ichigo stated calmly, though his mind was anything but a pool of tranquillity. “You killed my sisters.”

_You betrayed us. You betrayed your people._

Aizen smirked back, no remorse. He tilted his head towards Ichigo.

“And now I’m going to kill _you.”_

“I won’t allow that,” Isshin stepped in, moving in front of Ichigo who quickly moved back to his father’s side. He would not hide behind his father; he would not allow another parent to die for him.

Aizen straightened his head again and smiled. He acted like this was a game to him.

How could someone be so evil?

“Well I’ll just have to kill you first then,” Aizen replied with a small shrug, treating Isshin as if he was nothing but a small bump on the road.

“And _I_ won’t allow that.”

It was Toshiro who spoke that time and Ichigo’s eyes slid to him. He had his short sword drawn, held lightly in one hand, while his other hand was splayed and a thin loop of water danced quickly around his fingers. He was ready to fight.

Aizen turned to Toshiro, still amused though his brows pinched a fraction. His eyes narrowed slightly at the Waterbender.

“Gin,” he called back to his accomplice. “Is that little Shiro-chan?”

Gin hummed in affirmative, his sly smile unchanging and his closed eyes unopening.

“Didn’t you kill him?” Aizen followed up.

“I tried,” Gin drawled lazily. “A couple of times, in fact. He’s… _Slippery.”_

Ichigo’s eyes darted back to Toshiro who was glaring death at the Water King. They knew each other personally?

“Besides,” Gin continued, his grin widening enough to show his sharpened incisors. “I quite enjoy our game of cat and mouse.”

“What have I told you about playing with your food?” Aizen reprimanded calmly. “Now kill him.”

The order was peacefully delivered, but Ichigo knew the intentions of it were anything but.

“Yes, Air Lord,” Gin nodded once.

The Water King raised his arm and sliced it down through the air as ice razors shot out from his fingertips and flew at Toshiro, who cut them away with a precise swipe of his sword. He shot back with his other hand just as quickly but Gin dodged the water attack with ease. He had more trouble dodging the unexpected blast of fire that followed from Rangiku. The look he sent her was nothing short of offence. He fired back at her with several spears of ice which Toshiro blocked again with his sword.

Ichigo was distracted watching three of them for a moment, he had almost forgotten about Aizen until Isshin pushed himself back between them and was promptly thrown into the cave wall like a ragdoll.

“Dad!” Ichigo called after him, watching in horror as his father hit the cave wall and immediately fell to the rock floor below.

There was a chuckle. Ichigo’s eyes snapped back to Aizen who was again smirking menacingly.

Ichigo snarled at him and pushed back with a powerful gust of wind of his own and Renji joined him quickly, jumping into his line of side, landing in a low stance and thrusting his hands forward. It broke earth from the ground and almost hit Aizen square in the chest, but a quick foot movement from Tosen crumbled the rocks to dust. The Earth Emperor was partially hidden in the shadows, lurking behind, and Ichigo hadn’t considered him as much of a threat but he was clearly quicker and more accurate than Ichigo had suspected the average blind man to be.

Fire shot out from Ichigo’s left as Isshin rolled back onto his feet. Aizen narrowly missed the blast – so narrowly that it singed his eyebrow and a thin trail of smoke lingered off it.

Aizen snarled then, his malicious smirk finally slipping off his face.

“You know,” he huffed, straightening back up. “I never liked Firebenders.”

“I never liked you,” Isshin gave a quick sarcastic smile before he dropped low and swung his leg out, sending another burst of fire at the traitor.

From there it was an all-out brawl, as all four elements slashed at each other. They paired off in teams, as Ichigo and Isshin fought Aizen, Toshiro and Rangiku battled Gin, and Renji and Rukia dealt with Tosen. Well, Renji attempted to deal with him, as he told Rukia to stay back so she wouldn’t get hurt, much to her protests.

Ichigo knew that even though it was six against three, it was his side that was losing.

“They’re too powerful,” Ichigo hissed to his father. He could see Renji struggling against Tosen, heavily on the defence as he blocked Tosen’s rock daggers.

“We need to get away,” Isshin agreed with an urgent whisper. “There’s a tunnel we can escape through, we just need to stop them following us.”

Ichigo glanced around; how could they distract or push back on the three traitors long enough for all of them to escape? They were too overwhelmed.

Aizen wasn’t giving Ichigo any time to think about it either, as he shot air blast after air blast at him. Ichigo had to revert to old fashioned Airbending tactics: evade and avoid. He was entirely on the defence, jumping from rock to rock to dodge the sharp blast. Isshin was no better off, finding every one of his return fireballs being extinguished before they could reach their target.

A scream distracted Ichigo though, because it was Rukia’s. For a moment his blood ran cold and his eyes snapped to his friend.

Rukia was pale and shaking, but fine. She was tending quickly to an unconscious Renji and Ichigo sucked in a sharp gasp as he saw Tosen’s foot move along the rock surface, his arms moving succinctly to deal a final blow.

Anger stirred in Ichigo again, he punched forward powerfully, sending a long burst of flames towards Tosen. Isshin joined him in the attack, and though Tosen dodged it, it was enough to distract him from his planned fatal move on Renji and Rukia. Rukia used her powers to make a defensive ice shield – it wouldn’t hold for long though. Thankfully Isshin jumped forward to burst more fire at the Earth Emperor, keeping Tosen in check as Renji still laid unmoving despite Rukia’s healing.

Cracking on Ichigo’s other side caught his attention, and he whipped around quickly, remembering Aizen. To his surprise, a wall of ice crumbled to the ground as Toshiro stood between Aizen and Ichigo, his own protective shield falling down.

The Avatar’s lips parted in shock – Toshiro had just blocked Aizen’s attack that had been aimed at Ichigo. It would have hit him too, because he had been focused on Tosen.

Toshiro had saved him.

The boy in question was still in his stance, his sword forgotten somewhere as he used two hands to pull his wall back up. Aizen snarled and knocked it down just as quickly, but Toshiro instantly replaced it before sending a flood of water over the top.

“I can’t keep doing this,” Toshiro stated simply, jaw clenching. “We have to escape.”

Just as he spoke, Aizen knocked down the wall again. The flood hadn’t even touched him, but Gin looked disgruntled at having been wet instead, and further frustrated as Rangiku shot more fire at him. Gin shot another flurry of ice razors at her which Rangiku moved to avoid but wasn’t fast enough. One nicked her collar and she hissed in pain, stumbling back.

“Rangiku!” Toshiro called, more worry in his voice than Ichigo had ever heard. Without hesitating, he jumped up and swung his arms, a flood of water materialising and pushing Gin back into the nearest tree trunk, of which he was promptly frozen against.

“I’m fine,” Rangiku called back but Toshiro was already at her side, inspecting the bleeding gash on her neck. Thankfully it didn’t look too deep. She straightened and the necklace she always wore fell away from her chest, broken.

It was glancing at Rangiku that gave Ichigo a sudden idea. He remembered his first lesson with her.

_“Wind will fuel and travel an inferno, but it will extinguish a candle.”_

Well, an inferno would be helpful right about now. Especially since Aizen seemed to hate fire.

It had to be big though – anything too small and Aizen would have the chance to blow it out, and Gin would be able to drown it.

“I have an idea,” Ichigo whispered quickly to Isshin who was fending off Aizen again while Tosen struggled to get off a burning coat. “You and Rangiku give me all the fire you’ve got, and I’ll use wind to travel the inferno at them. We can force them back enough to get to the tunnel.”

Isshin nodded, agreeing with the plan.

“Ichigo!”

A voice called out to Ichigo, a voice that was familiar and a voice he should not have been hearing at this moment in time. The Avatar’s gaze snapped towards it and his heart stopped.

His mother stood before him.

“Ichigo,” Masaki beamed, and she held out her hand, beckoning him forward.

_Mum-_

“Ichi!”

It was twin voices for twin girls, as Karin and Yuzu popped out either side of Masaki, smiling happily.

“Come on, Ichi!” Yuzu called.

“Hurry up, Dad!” Karin added, waving enthusiastically at Isshin.

Ichigo’s eyes were blown wide, his breath sucked sharply in. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. His mother, his sisters, alive and-

Their image flickered.

Ichigo gripped Isshin’s sleeve instantly as his father took a tentative step forward, mesmerised as Ichigo had been.

But Ichigo had seen this before, quite recently.

“They’re not real,” Ichigo breathed.

Isshin stopped, but he stared still.

“No?” Masaki’s mouth moved, but it was Aizen’s voice now. “How about now?”

Byakuya Kuchiki stood before them. “Remember me? I killed your family.”

Ichigo glanced at Rukia who had momentarily forgotten Renji, her violet eyes wide. She didn’t move, and Byakuya didn’t turn to her. Aizen obviously didn’t know the connection there.

“Yes you did,” Ichigo spoke to the Byakuya figure, “... _Aizen._ ”

Byakuya smirked, before the image morphed again. It glitched back to Aizen briefly, but then it was the Water King – the previous Water King, Gin Ichimaru’s father. Ichigo recognised him from his Spirit World trips with Zangetsu to the palace in Junrinan.

He was tall, and even in fake image there was a regal air about him. He turned towards where Toshiro and Rangiku stood, staring at the show Aizen was putting on, and the Water King narrowed his eyes at them.

He opened his mouth to speak but he had no sooner done that than an ice spear had shot through his open mouth from the back of his head. The image was obliterated, dissipating into thin air and revealing Aizen standing not too far back.

Aizen turned and raised an eyebrow at Gin, who had just shot his imaginary father back down. He had broken free from Toshiro’s ice restraints and was grinning menacingly again.

“Sorry, Air Lord,” Gin drawled, not sounding the least bit apologetic. “Old habits die hard.”

Aizen made a noncommittal hum before he turned back to Ichigo, those once kind brown eyes focusing on him again.

“I did kill your family,” he stated simply, reminding Ichigo of what he had just seen. “I’ll kill your friends too. Tell me, Avatar; how many people have to die for you?”

Ichigo flinched at that. It was sharper than any blow that Aizen could have physically dealt him.

The two other traitors had stopped attacking too, letting Aizen handle things for a moment. Tosen stood in the dark and never had a human seemed as much like a statue as he did, though his coat was still smouldering. Gin had stepped forward to pick something up from the grass and narrowly avoided Toshiro swinging his sword at him when he got too close. Gin chuckled as he jumped back, holding up Rangiku’s necklace for them to see before he pocketed it.

Ichigo only saw it from the corner of his eye, as most of his focus drilled straight ahead at his former Air Lord.

“What do you want?” Ichigo called out to Aizen. Who was he really? Because he was no Air Lord, no leader of his people.

“The world,” Aizen sneered, “on its knees, worshipping me. I want the Avatar line – past, present and future – extinguished for good.”

“Not in my lifetime,” Ichigo breathed.

“I couldn't agree more,” Aizen shrugged before he sent another, far more powerful gust of wind that Ichigo couldn’t block – he tried, but it cut through his defence. It sent him flying into the cave wall and he heard a distinctive crunch as his head hit rock.

There was nothing for a moment, and then ice cold water shocked Ichigo back into consciousness.

He opened his eyes, head pounding to find himself on the rocky cave floor in a puddle of water.

His vision blurred as he lifted his head, but he could see orange – vivid orange. _Flames_.

Small hands pulled Ichigo up.

“Time to go.” It was Toshiro’s voice.

Ichigo winced, his wobbling legs finding their step. He saw dark figures in the fray, silhouettes manipulating the tall flames. Isshin and Rangiku!

“I need to help them,” Ichigo murmured, shrugging off Toshiro’s hands as they helped stabilise him.

He stumbled forward and his thoughts became clearer as he reached his father. Isshin and Rangiku were working together to bring a wall of flames up over the cave opening, dividing the three traitors from the six of them.

Ichigo remembered his plan. Refocusing and pooling his strength, he poured all of his Airbending into his hands and jumped up, spinning in the air with the wind forming around him. It made him all the more dizzy but Ichigo spotted his target and shot out, pushing the inferno out of the cave and towards their enemies. He felt the air rush out of him with his breath and the last of his energy.

He didn’t get time to see if it worked as he felt someone grab him by the back of his shirt and run into the darkness.

He realised quickly that it was Isshin dragging him into a dark part of the cave. Ichigo’s feet stumbled blindly after him but they barely touched the ground. A faint flicker of light illuminated the dark walls as the overall temperature of the cave dropped. They were in the tunnel.

It was several minutes later when they finally stopped and Ichigo was put down.

“Are you alright?” Isshin asked, panting a little. He held up a small candle-like flame on his finger tip and Ichigo saw worried amber eyes gazing at him.

Ichigo nodded, rubbing the back of his head which was admitted still sore, but he felt okay otherwise.

“Did we all get away?” he asked.

Isshin hummed and moved out of the way so that Ichigo could see the others behind him. Renji was being roused awake finally as Rukia tended to his injuries. Toshiro and Rangiku were squatting nearby, watching tiredly.

Ichigo noticed ice on the ground that was breaking down and melting away, and judging by the way Toshiro was massaging his wrists Ichigo figured he must have pulled an unconscious Renji through the tunnel on a slide of ice.

“Can they follow us?” Ichigo asked, thinking of Aizen and his two accomplices, battling through the inferno to get to the cave.

“Hopefully not.”

Isshin explained that Rangiku managed to melt the tunnel way entry closed, and Rukia had followed to cool the magma with water that turned it hard.

“Tosen will be able to break through it, of course,” Isshin sighed. “Once they clear the inferno that is, but we’re hoping Renji will be able to help further.”

The Earthbender in question groaned hearing his name. Ichigo grimaced down at him. He was relieved that Renji had survived but he didn’t seem in any shape to use his powers.

“In any case,” Isshin continued with a sigh, “there’s a number of passages and forks in this tunnel system. As long as we move quickly, we should be able to stay far enough ahead that they won’t know where we’re going.”

“Where are we going?” Rangiku asked, glancing up at them from where she squatted, her fingers feeling for a necklace that was no longer there. She looked shaken, and ash covered the right side of her face. Toshiro was inspecting the gash on her neck, cleaning the dried blood off with water.

“One of the passageways will take us under the mountain and out at Iris Valley,” Isshin murmured. “But it will be a whole day’s walk, two if we break for a sleep.”

Ichigo felt anxieties stirring in him. He almost didn’t want to sleep again.

Below, Renji groaned again, more coherently mumbling about feeling sick. Rukia continued to heal him, as he appeared to slowly blink into awareness.

“We need to keep going,” Toshiro murmured, voice quiet and exhausted.

Ichigo nodded. They were all tired but there was no choice, they had to keep moving.

He bent down and reached for Renji, pulling the man to his feet.

“Come on, Lazy,” he tried to joke. Renji groaned again, but thankfully his feet found the floor and held him up – sort of, he leaned heavily against Ichigo until Isshin came to his other side and helped. Together, they got him walking forward into the dark cave.

Ahead of them, Rangiku took the lead, using her fire to light the way as Isshin gave her directions. Toshiro and Rukia followed at the back, and no doubt were listening intently for any unwanted followers.

* * *

They walked on and on through the dark, in tight passageways and open caves that had stalactites hanging from the ceiling. They looked threatening almost, but they were by far the least of their concerns.

Eventually Renji came back into full consciousness with them, and though he complained about a headache, he did manage to use some Earthbending, closing entry points of passageways they were ducking into. By comparison, Toshiro was icing over the odd passageway opening they _weren’t_ entering, hoping to throw Aizen off course should he be following them.

Hours passed as they walked, and they walked until they could no more.

Their breaks were short-lived and no one really slept, except maybe Renji who was most definitely still partially concussed. Rukia let the redhead lie his head in her lap as she healed him, while Rangiku sat, collapsed sideways onto Toshiro’s shoulder. The boy stared at the floor, eyes unfocused.

Ichigo swallowed, his arms coming around his knees as he took a seat on the cave floor. Isshin groaned quietly as he lowered himself down too.

“Dad?”

“Hmm?”

“What was that?” Ichigo asked quietly. “How were we able to see Mum and the girls?”

Aizen had made Masaki and the girls appear, he was able to make Byakuya Kuchiki and Gin Ichimaru’s father appear.

“Do you remember when we visited the Northern Air Temple,” Isshin looked thoughtful, “and the Elder Monks were able to manipulate air to make visions appear?”

Ichigo nodded. He remembered – the Elder Monks had been putting on shows for the children, and in particular for Ichigo, who as the new Avatar had had almost celebrity status. Still, the visions those Monks had created had been obviously fake, in fact they were mostly transparent. They were like ghostly cartoons.

“I think Aizen might be using that string of Airbending,” Isshin sighed. “He’s perfected it to the point the person witnessing it can’t tell if it’s real or not, unless they know any better. We knew better tonight.”

_Because we knew all those people were dead._

Ichigo took a big breath. “He hasn’t fully perfected it; they flickered.”

“That’s something that we need to be wary of,” Isshin agreed. “Tonight he showed us people we know to be deceased in the middle of a battle. He could be sneakier next time.”

That was a terrifying thought. Aizen, if he used his power in the right way, could easily get close to Ichigo or any one of his friends without them really knowing.

More unease was added to Ichigo’s stomach as he sat and imagined all the horrific ways in which Aizen could trick them in future. Isshin clapped him on the shoulder and squeezed, silently promising him they would get through this.

“We’ve got other things to worry about right now,” Isshin reminded him, rather grimly. “We can make a plan when we’ve made it to Iris Valley and we’ve all had a decent sleep.”

A good sleep wouldn’t fix the problem, but Ichigo knew his father was right that it would make their minds clearer to prepare a smarter plan going forward. The problem was that they were unlikely to have a decent sleep while they were being stalked by three traitor kings and had to sleep on the rock floor of a cave.

“We don’t even have sleeping bags anymore,” Ichigo sighed. “We left it all behind.”

It had occurred to him an hour or so ago, when the tiredness started to outweigh the panic, that they hadn’t had time to grab much, or anything really, from the cave after the battle started. He wanted nothing more than to cocoon himself in his sleeping bag for at least a day and a half, but they had left all their sleeping bags in Isshin’s cave. In fact, they had left everything they owned back in that cave – their clothes, their food supplies, any and all keepsakes.

They had lost everything.

“Not everything,” Isshin nudged Ichigo playfully before reaching into his pocket and producing a small black pouch. He emptied the contents into his hand and Ichigo couldn’t help but chuckle at what he saw.

“The pearls,” Ichigo smiled, picking the necklace up from Isshin’s palm. Masaki’s pearls, the ones Isshin had saved from the looters. If Ichigo remembered correctly, they had been an anniversary gift from his father to his mother.

Isshin hummed, fiddling with the other items in his palm. “I always keep the valuables on my person.”

He had Masaki’s wedding ring, and a bracelet Ichigo recognised to be Yuzu’s; the latter was made of coloured string and cheap glass beads but he remembered buying it for his sister on her ninth birthday and she had worn it every day until she died. They were the items that had been left on their graves.

“Karin’s hat was in the bottom of my knapsack,” Isshin grimaced. “She was never into jewellery.”

“Or sentiment,” Ichigo shrugged lightly. “But I’ve still been using her shoelace anyway.”

He pointed to his boot that was laced up with a faded and dirty blue lace. Years before the attack on Karakura, Ichigo and his sisters had gotten brightly coloured laces from the weekend markets. Ichigo had picked orange, Karin blue and Yuzu pink. For a laugh, they had mixed their laces and the day of the attack, Ichigo had been wearing one of Karin’s blue ones. He had always looked after it, though the colour had faded significantly and soon enough the stains stopped washing out, but it had been hers and Ichigo had kept it. It was lame, and Karin would be rolling her eyes if she was truly watching above, but at least they had something of hers.

Isshin must have agreed because he smiled and touched the lace tenderly.

“We can get new supplies,” the captain murmured after a while.

Ichigo sighed. “What about food and water?”

They could go without sleeping bags but food and water was pretty essential.

“Shaved ice?” Toshiro offered then, holding out a handful of ice chips. It sounded like a sarcastic offer but Ichigo knew it wasn’t, so he accepted wordlessly.

Ichigo had once assumed that Toshiro couldn’t use Waterbending if there was no water around, as Rukia had always had to carry water to use it for healing, but it had become apparent that was not an issue Toshiro faced. Ichigo had asked Isshin about it days ago.

“Toshiro has learned to pull water from any source that contains it,” Isshin had explained. “You would be surprised how many sources there are. Plants, blood, even air.”

Ichigo had been mildly alarmed to hear that, but if he had learned one thing tonight it was that perhaps Waterbending wasn’t the most evil of practices. It certainly came in useful now that they had no other supplies, and it had been useful to drag the great lump that was an unconscious Renji into the tunnel, not to mention it had been how Toshiro had saved Ichigo earlier.

He would have to thank him for that.

“Come on,” Isshin sighed as he put away his family’s valuables. “We need to keep moving.”

Ichigo grimaced and nodded. As much as they wanted to rest, they couldn’t afford to. He poured some ice chips into his mouth before standing once more. They had to keep going.

* * *

It was almost forty hours later that Ichigo finally saw the light of day again. Well, the light of dusk as the sun had dropped and the stars were beginning to poke out once more.

They had made it through the caves and tunnels, finally exiting the mountain into the lush Iris Valley. They had only stopped for short breaks and Ichigo managed to get a few short power naps in, but he still felt like he had been awake for three days straight.

“We best stay out of the open,” Isshin murmured. “There are some communities in the valley, but as a part of the Earth Empire, they’re under Ichimaru’s control.”

“Don’t you mean Aizen’s?” Ichigo muttered and Isshin grimaced and nodded.

“Yes, I suppose I do.”

If anything was clear from their interaction with the three evil traitors last night, it was that Aizen was their leader. Ichimaru served him, that much was obvious; he was likely more of a figurehead to keep his army under Aizen’s power, and a face for the war. What Tosen contributed (other than deadly Earthbending), Ichigo didn’t know, but the former emperor appeared to take orders from Aizen just as Gin did.

They were all evil, no matter who was in charge, but it stung Ichigo the most to know it was a man he had admired, a man he had defended, that was leading them.

Ichigo sighed, running his hand through his knotted hair – he was just so tired, and the world was falling apart around him.

Isshin led them out of the caves and into a nearby forest, giving them plenty of tree cover. The group walked through, dragging their tired feed, for at least another hour before they reached a small grassy clearing.

“We’ll rest here tonight, make a plan tomorrow,” Isshin sighed. “Everyone get some sleep.”

It was perhaps the most tired Ichigo had ever felt, and yet he wasn’t sure he could sleep.

“We should have someone on watch,” Toshiro said cautiously. “I’ll take the first shift.”

“I’ll join you,” Ichigo offered, surprising himself and everyone. Of course, he would rather do watch duty with almost anyone else, but he couldn’t sleep just yet.

Isshin looked between them before agreeing with a nod.

“I’ll relieve you in a few hours.”

Toshiro turned and wandered over to a nearby tree, sitting against it. Ichigo followed wordlessly, sitting at the base of the next tree over. He watched as Rangiku started a small fire and everyone else lay down around it. They didn’t have sleeping bags but seemed content enough – or simply tired enough – to lie there in the grass, with just the heat of the fire to keep them warm.

Ichigo turned back to Toshiro. The Waterbender had his short sword laid across his folded legs, his hands resting gently at each end of the sheath. Under this tree, moonlight poked through and illuminated Toshiro, his hair almost glowing. His skin seemed to shine like pearl, the sea blue of his outfit looking brighter for a moment. Ichigo stared unwillingly as Toshiro’s eyes scanned the forest for a moment before they fell back on Ichigo.

“What?” he asked, distrust in his teal irises.

“Nothing,” Ichigo answered quickly, _defensively,_ before looking away through the surrounding trees.

They sat in silence for a long time, simply listening for any sounds that didn’t seem natural and did seem like approaching enemies, but nothing occurred. Owls hooted, leaves at the highest branches rustled gently in the wind, and the campfire crackled quietly.

Renji’s soft snores broke first, and then Isshin’s much louder snores.

Ichigo and Toshiro glanced at each other and shared a knowing chuckle, both familiar with Isshin’s late night snoring.

“He’s so loud,” Ichigo groaned quietly.

“Yeah,” Toshiro seemed to fight a smile. “I’ve missed it.”

Ichigo could see the love in Toshiro’s eyes when he spoke about Isshin, and it reassured him – again – that the guy wasn’t evil.

“Me too,” Ichigo hummed. “My sister Karin used to complain about it. Once she tried to plug his mouth with a sock and Dad nearly choked on it.”

Toshiro laughed and Ichigo felt a strange tingling as goosebumps appeared on his arm. It wasn’t from the cold, he just had never heard such an electrifying sound as Toshiro’s laughter.

“Captain used to pretend to snore to help me get to sleep,” Toshiro told him, his voice quite soft as he smiled seemingly to himself at the memory. “I struggled to sleep without hearing it. I knew when he was faking but it still helped.”

Ichigo glanced back over at the sleeping form of his father, remembering what Isshin had told him about how Toshiro and Rangiku would curl up against him to sleep, back when they were all in prison together. Ichigo hadn’t spoken about that with either of them, and he had felt funny asking Isshin for more information. It seemed almost taboo to talk about, but maybe that was Ichigo not wanting to know.

“My dad told me about where he knows you from,” Ichigo murmured, trying it out. “He said you stood up the wrong person.”

Toshiro’s nostalgic smile fell slowly from his face as he leaned back against the tree and hummed in affirmative.

“Was it Gin Ichimaru?” Ichigo asked when Toshiro said nothing further.

“No,” Toshiro answered that quickly, unemotional.

Ichigo blinked in surprise. “He seemed to know you?”

In fact, Gin seemed to have a real interest in both Toshiro and Rangiku.

“It still wasn’t him,” Toshiro folded his arms across his chest, hands slipping into opposite sleeves as he often did.

“Then how does he know you?”

Toshiro shrugged non-committedly. “I was a child Waterbender that sat in his prison cell for six years on charges of treason, he knows who I am.”

It was a fair point, but Ichigo did sense he wasn’t getting the whole truth. Maybe it was too painful a subject to discuss right now?

Another long silence passed over them, with nothing but the safe sounds of nature around them (minus the snoring, that was). Ichigo sighed and glanced down at his knees, processing. Like Rangiku, Toshiro held his cards close to his chest. It was a part of what made Ichigo not trust him, and about the only argument he still had for that after finding out the tragic story of his childhood.

“I’m sorry.”

Ichigo’s eyes snapped back up to Toshiro who was staring intently at him.

“I’m sorry for being an ass,” the Waterbender repeated. “I’m sorry about Aizen. I know how hard it is to watch someone you once respected turn evil.”

Ichigo blinked at him, not expecting the apology, and frankly not deserving it.

“I was the ass,” the Avatar admitted. “You tried to tell me Aizen was evil but I wouldn’t listen.”

He had almost forgotten about that, but now that he thought about it, he remembered that Toshiro had suspected Aizen all along.

“I knew he was evil,” Toshiro murmured, brows pinching. “I didn’t know he had been the one to…”

He trailed off but Ichigo knew what he meant. He didn’t know that Aizen had killed Ichigo’s mother and sisters.

“But you suspected, didn’t you?”

“Only once you said you thought it was Captain Kuchiki,” Toshiro grimaced. “You didn’t want to believe it was someone else.”

Ichigo exhaled, remembering that Isshin had told him that Byakuya Kuchiki was in prison with them, and how he had been dragged away and killed when he refused to lead the attack on Karakura.

He didn’t blame Toshiro for not pressing him with his suspicions; Ichigo would not have reacted well.

“Did you tell Rukia?” he asked.

Toshiro hummed and nodded.

“I thought she deserved to know the truth,” he murmured. “Byakuya Kuchiki died a good man. He had tried to protect her by exiling her from the Southern Territory before Aizen took control of the Water Armies.”

Ichigo shot Toshiro a confused look, this being the first time he had heard that last bit. Toshiro explained that Aizen had used the families of powerful people to manipulate them to his will. If he had the opportunity to use Rukia, Byakuya probably would have had to choose between his sister’s life and leading the attack on Karakura.

It was weird imagining the man he had always thought to be evil to be good, and the man he had always thought to be good to be evil.

“When did Aizen take over the Water Kingdom?” Ichigo asked. “Was it always him or was Gin leading it at the start?”

“It was always Aizen,” Toshiro answered. “He wasn’t alone though, he approached the old Water King and they agreed to kill the Avatar before you and start the war. They were equals in that, but I think they would have betrayed each other in the end so there would only be one king.”

Ichigo frowned, remembering what Zangetsu had told him about refusing to believe his old best friend was turning evil. He would have to talk to his predecessor again soon – now that he knew the truth about Aizen, hopefully Zangetsu would share more information with him.

“And then Gin usurped his father by killing him,” Ichigo remembered. “Why?”

Gin’s father and Aizen were equals, albeit ones that would likely betray each other eventually, but Gin most definitely seemed like he was Aizen’s pawn more than he was an equal. Killing his own father to take the water throne had only ensured Aizen would be the world leader if they won the war.

“Who knows what goes on in his warped mind?” Toshiro muttered.

Ichigo hummed. Gin might not have been the sole evil of this world, and he might not have been Aizen’s equal but he was still evil. He still had to be taken down, and he would go down beside Aizen if Ichigo had his way.

“This is a mess,” Ichigo sighed. “I can’t believe it was Aizen all along. My whole life he was someone I looked up to. The Elder Monks had believed him to be the chosen Air Lord of the Gods.”

What changed Aizen from a peaceful leader of the Air Realm, which had never even had a formal army, let alone a desire for power? They were a community of monks and nomads, they were largely pacifists. They were ‘flighty’, not power hungry.

It was obvious why he needed the Water Army, so that he would have a trained force behind him, but it was not clear what had prompted him to want to take over the world.

“Do you think that will make it harder for you to fight him?” Toshiro asked.

Ichigo glanced up at him. Teal eyes were focused on him and they held concern. Ichigo sucked in a sharp breath, feeling a strange amount of power from those eyes. The concern they held was not for whether the Avatar could defeat an evil tyrant but for Ichigo himself.

“He killed my family,” Ichigo breathed, as if that were enough to answer. “But I have no idea how I am going to get the power to beat him.”

“You will learn it,” Toshiro murmured. “You’re the Avatar for a reason. The Gods know you can do it.”

“Do they?” Ichigo wanted to laugh but his voice sounded kind of broken. “I’m-”

He cut himself off with a huff. He was scared, and he was scared to admit he was scared.

Ichigo looked away, feeling those sharp teal eyes regarding him, trying to make something of the Avatar, the apparent saviour of the world.

Sighing, Ichigo held his head in his hands, his elbows digging into his thighs. He felt tormented, between the fate he didn’t want and the people he wanted to protect, and the overwhelming sense of impending failure and loss.

“The Gods made a mistake choosing me,” he admitted through a whisper. “I want to run away from it but they bound me.”

“In Junrinan, we have a saying. It’s ‘Astra inclinant, sed non obligant’,” Toshiro told him and when Ichigo looked up at him, the Waterbender’s eyes were softer than he had ever seen him. “It means ‘the stars incline us, they do not bind us’. If you want to run away you can, no one will stop you, but you won’t and not because the Gods bind you but because _love_ does.”

Ichigo stared at him. “What do you mean?”

“No wants to see you suffer, Ichigo,” Toshiro murmured sadly. “We would understand if you left your destiny behind. Run now if you want.”

It hit Ichigo then how simple it was. Here Toshiro was giving him a way out of being the Avatar. All he had to do was run and hide, and stay low for the rest of his life, or until the end of the war if his side miraculously won.

Still, he did not move, he did not run.

“I have to protect my father and my friends,” Ichigo realised out loud. “I have to stay for them and I have to fight to keep them safe.”

Toshiro nodded. “Love binds you, not the Gods.”

Ichigo leaned back against the tree trunk, his head thudding against the wood as his mouth made a realising ‘oh’ sound.

It was love that made Ichigo stay, it was love that made him fight. For Isshin, for Rukia and Renji, for his mother and sisters that had died at Aizen’s hands.

Love was powerful, Ichigo realised then. It tied into what Isshin had told him the other night, of how love stops a bender from being overtaken by their element – it was their driving force to stay themselves.

It seemed like such a childish thing, something parents would tell a child to get them to sleep at night, but as Ichigo was discovering, love was no fickle concept. It was a powerful magic.

It did, in a way, make things less scary for Ichigo. His resolve to fight was now crystal clear – it wasn’t marred by guilt or a false sense of obligation to faceless Gods. Ichigo wanted to fight now, because he wanted to save his friends and family, and he wanted them to have a peaceful future, whether he was a part of it or not.

Even death was less terrifying to Ichigo now.

“You…” Ichigo breathed, brow furrowing as he couldn’t believe he was now saying his next words to Toshiro of all people, “have no idea how helpful that was.”

A sliver of a smirk played at Toshiro’s lips.

“I think once you get over my being a Waterbender,” Toshiro drawled cheekily, “you’ll come to realise how helpful I can be.”

“Is that so?” Ichigo couldn’t help but return the tease.

“I am very intelligent, Kurosaki.”

“Modest too, I noticed.”

“And incredibly powerful.”

“Naturally."

"I also believe I have a great sense of humour.”

“They say sarcasm is the lowest form of wit.”

“But the highest form of intelligence,” Toshiro finished, that smirk turning to a cheeky grin, “and the funniest, if I do say so myself.”

Ichigo chuckled and rolled his eyes. It was almost unnerving seeing Toshiro finally be expressive, let alone funny.

He was alright, Ichigo supposed.

Their chuckles died off and they returned to a peaceful silence that was more companionable than awkward. Ichigo found that for the first time, he felt comfortable around Toshiro, and even happy to be sitting with him.

Ichigo’s eyes did another scan of the forest, but he felt total calmness from it. Nothing was approaching and his group was safe for tonight.

He turned back to Toshiro to find him staring up at the crescent moon overhead, eyes thoughtful and perhaps a little sad.

“I forgot to thank you,” Ichigo murmured, “for blocking Aizen’s attack in the cave. You saved me.”

“You’re welcome,” Toshiro murmured in return, dragging his eyes away from the moon.

Teal landed on Ichigo and the sadness left them. Toshiro smiled then, a genuinely happy smile that Ichigo hadn’t seen before.

He felt his heart quicken.


	6. Fire III: Not Anymore

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ichigo graduates from Firebending and makes a startling discovery. Meanwhile, Isshin introduces the group to some new friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright *claps hands together* we’ve got a lot to get through and I’m bumbling my way through the ever-changing outline for this fic. Over the next few chapters, we will meet some more friends (yay!) and we skim through learning all the elements (uhh-) BUCKLE UP!

Ichigo ducked his father’s fire blast, throwing himself out of the way and rolling over the grass before he jumped back up and fired back.

He managed to evade Rangiku’s shot from his other side by redirecting its path with a quick blast of air.

The three of them were sparring, Isshin and Rangiku working as a team to test Ichigo’s Firebending.

It had been over a month since they had fled from Aizen and his co-conspirators. After a brief stay in Iris Valley, and morally questionable ‘shopping trip’ through the nearby Water Soldiers’ barracks, which were largely empty while the officers patrolled, the group had managed to restock their supplies of food, water and bedding.

Now they were travelling, not stopping anywhere for more than a day or two. They were lucky to escape, mostly unharmed, from the cave that night - they couldn’t afford to be caught off guard like that again.

In the wake of their ass whooping, Isshin had convinced them all to change tact. Now, instead of going directly to the Seireitei, they were going to go through Hueco Mundo, the capital city of the Earth Empire.

It was crazy, and unthinkably dangerous, but Isshin had promised them it was for a good reason. He had contacts there, associates who would be on their side in the fight against Aizen. ‘Old friends’ he called them, ‘powerful Benders’. Well Ichigo wasn’t about to turn down potential allies, particularly if they were strong fighters, but it was a big ask to go into the heart of enemy territory to find them.

Hueco Mundo was, after all, the base of Aizen’s operations.

_Aizen’s_ operations. Ichigo missed the ignorance of thinking Gin Ichimaru was the worst person in the world. As it turned out, he was only the second worst.

Ichigo had managed to accept that over the past few weeks, but he wanted to talk it through with his predecessor, Old Man Zangetsu. Annoyingly, Zangetsu had decided this was the most appropriate time to become silent for the first time ever. Ichigo wasn’t sure he was ready to visit the ghost in his spirit world again just yet, the memories of his last trip too fresh, so he had only been attempting to call him in his waking thoughts. Zangetsu, however, saw fit to ignore him.

“On your right!” Isshin called to Ichigo and the Avatar spun to his left, knowing better now, and blocked his father’s fire attack in time. Isshin grinned widely. “That’s better, Ichigo!”

Ichigo had lost his eyebrow before he realised that when he father called out a direction, he was usually coming from the opposite. _Usually_ \- since Ichigo had the upside of his head smacked when thought he had cracked the pattern.

“Don’t rely on sounds or other warnings, they’re lies,” Isshin had told him. “Don’t get distracted. Feel the air move.”

Just because Ichigo had to learn all these other forms of bending didn’t mean he was allowed to forget his roots, apparently. It had been a long time since Ichigo had relied on feeling air shifts to determine movement around him. As a kid, he’d only used it to work out where his mother was and if he could sneak a cookie from the kitchen before dinner (of course, she had the same powers as him and always caught him in the act).

“You don’t need to use the elements in isolation,” Isshin had advised him. “Use them together. That’s what makes the Avatar so strong.”

Other than getting his eyebrows burned off and head smacked, training with Isshin was exactly as Ichigo had hoped it would be - he was learning so much. Rangiku was an asset too; she had such raw power and her defence was second to none. She taught Ichigo how to use Firebending to create a protective shield, just as Toshiro and Rukia could do with ice, and the Avatar had picked that up rather easily.

“Your instincts are to protect, Ichigo,” Rangiku had pointed out without even knowing the old translation of Ichigo’s name. “Fire is powerful in the offensive, but don’t rule it out as a means of blocking other strikes. Knowing how to use it defensively could save your life.”

Rangiku had also benefited from Isshin's training, learning more control and strengthening her endurance.

“Double attack!” Isshin called then but Ichigo had felt the air shifts before his father’s words had even registered in his mind.

Instantly, he pulled up a wall of fire on either side of him, blocking the blasts coming from Isshin and Rangiku either side of him.

“Perfect!” Rangiku cheered as Ichigo waved the fire away.

Ichigo smirked at her briefly before sending a shockwave of air at both his trainers and using his Airbending to propel himself up onto a nearby boulder. Looking down at them, he had clearer shots, and punched his arms down towards them, his now well controlled anger coming out in two strong streams of fire that both Isshin and Rangiku had to dive to avoid.

Ichigo laughed, hearing Rangiku’s squeal and his father’s cursing. Finally, he was beating them and finally, he was-

_Toshiro._

From his boulder, Ichigo had spotted Toshiro. He was waist deep in the nearby stream with Rukia, both of them working to manipulate the water into various shapes. He had been teaching Rukia to use her Waterbending for combat, since she had all but demanded she be allowed to fight, Aizen’s attack on them leaving her rattled.

Ichigo hadn’t been entirely comfortable with it, even after everything he had learned and after spending more time with Toshiro, but Rukia was her own woman and was both vocal and violent in letting Ichigo and Renji know that. She got her way, but Ichigo liked to keep an eye on her training.

And it was her he kept an eye on. It wasn’t Toshiro, not in the slightest. It wasn’t his shirtless form that had Ichigo currently staring like an idiot, it wasn’t the surprise abs on that slim body that had Ichigo’s mouth drying.

Nope, not even a little bit.

Okay, maybe a _tiny_ bit. Ichigo was only human after all, and he had the she-devil Rukia’s sly whispered comments going around his mind.

_“We all know why you’re obsessed with him. He’s gorgeous.”_

Ichigo hadn’t been wrong, Waterbenders were evil.

Just in that moment, Ichigo got caught. He hadn’t been paying attention to the shifts in the air. Two hands grabbed him and the next thing Ichigo knew, his head was buried in warm darkness, and Rangiku’s shrill voice was squealing happily above him.

“I caught the Avatar!” she hugged him to her chest tightly.

Ichigo’s arms flailed, his scream only internal, until Rangiku pulled him back from her chest. The gasp of oxygen was dramatic on Ichigo’s part, but around Rangiku you never knew when it would be your last.

See, in training, Rangiku’s objective was to hug Ichigo - and hug him tightly… like a python. Ichigo wished she’d adopt Isshin’s far less painful smack upside the head when he got close enough.

“You got distracted there, Ichigo,” Rangiku raised an eyebrow at him. She nodded down to the stream. “Saw something you liked, did you?”

Ichigo flushed and it was all Rangiku needed to know apparently, as she smirked devilishly.

“Cut him some slack, Rangiku,” Isshin chuckled and Ichigo’s head snapped to see his father climbing up onto the boulder now too. “He’s nineteen. He’s hormonal, you know?”

“Dad!” Ichigo hissed. This was mortifying, more so when Rangiku laughed. “You two are crazy!”

Isshin and Rangiku shared a knowing glance that Ichigo despised. Their favourite activity, aside from blasting fire at Ichigo, was ganging up on him with their teasing remarks.

“Anyway,” Isshin grinned. “Aside from ogling a half-naked Toshiro-”

“I wasn’t ogling!”

“-You fought well, Ichigo,” Isshin continued, ignoring Ichigo’s outburst. “I think you’re ready.”

Ichigo straightened, his embarrassment forgotten for a moment.

“Ready?” he clarified.

“Congratulations,” Isshin clapped him on the shoulder, his smile proud. “You’ve mastered Firebending. You can learn Earthbending now.”

Ichigo let out a short breath, feeling surprised but also relieved. He had really mastered Firebending?

Isshin went on to explain that he would still need to train and hone his skills, but for the most part, he had the art of Firebending down, and it was high time he moved on to the next step.

Earthbending. His third element.

That meant he was now halfway to being a fully-fledged Avatar.

“Just don’t let the pretty ones distract you in battle," ”Rangiku nicked Ichigo’s chin playfully and immediately the embarrassment flooded back, turning Ichigo’s face the same colour as Renji’s hair (he assumed, based on how hot his cheeks felt).

Isshin chuckled until Ichigo glared at them both, and then his father stifled the laugh with a cough. He cleared his throat and sent Rangiku on her way before he threw his arm over Ichigo and turned them around. Once again, Ichigo was faced with the stream below and once again, his eyes naturally fell to Toshiro, who had just let Rukia douse him with a wave in the otherwise peaceful stream.

Even from up on the boulder, Ichigo could see the excitement in those teal eyes as they lit up and congratulated Rukia on her shot. Did the happiness in Toshiro’s eyes make Ichigo’s heart skip a beat? Well he wasn’t admitting to that.

“Don’t worry about it,” Isshin murmured to Ichigo. “I was the same when I met your mother.”

“Dad-”

“I won’t say anymore,” Isshin grinned, holding up his hands.

Ichigo glared at his father as the captain backed away with a smirk before eventually planting his hand down on the rock and hopping off the side of the boulder.

He was lucky Rukia had managed to heal his arm completely, otherwise Ichigo would have been sure to leave him up on the rock overnight.

Jumping off, Ichigo used the air to cushion his landing.

He hated proving anyone right, least of all Isshin and Rangiku, but he gravitated towards the stream naturally.

Renji would be down there, he reasoned, and being that he was to be Ichigo’s Earthbending teacher, it made sense that Ichigo would seek him out to tell him the good news.

Renji was down by the stream, sitting on the grass. He was watching Rukia, his expression troubled.

His expression had looked ‘troubled’ since the group had decided they were heading to Hueco Mundo - Renji’s old home. To his credit, he was handling it better than when Ichigo was told he needed to go to Karakura.

“Well it’s official,” Ichigo nudged him as he sat beside him. “You’re going to have to teach me how to be as stubborn and pigheaded as you.”

Renji’s lip curled into a small smirk. “I think you’ve already mastered that.”

Ichigo rolled his eyes. “Well I suppose you better just teach me Earthbending then.”

“I can’t wait to throw rocks at you,” Renji chuckled.

Ichigo grimaced. He had thought having fire thrown at him was going to be the worst of it, but something told him Renji’s assault would be worse. He probably wasn’t going to adopt Isshin’s gentle smack method - but as long as he didn’t hug like Rangiku (and Ichigo doubted anyone could hug like Rangiku), the Avatar would thank his lucky stars.

“Rukia is getting good,” Renji nodded towards where she was training in the stream.

Ichigo had been avoiding looking over at the pair of nearby training Waterbenders in case he lost his train of thought but he figured he could spare them a glance now. It would be weird not to on the back of Renji’s words, wouldn’t it?

Glancing up, Ichigo vaguely noted Rukia now had tentacle-like arms made from water and she had just sliced the branch off an overhanging tree with them, but the Avatar’s attention was stolen quickly by Rukia’s trainer.

Toshiro wasn’t doing anything remarkable, he was just standing there, but Ichigo stared. Up close, he could see the toned body more clearly. He could see every dip and crevice between muscles, every light scar. He could see the water droplets racing down his skin. Toshiro’s eyes were focused on Rukia’s movements, and hair was wet so he had brushed it back off his face and something about that had Ichigo’s mouth drying again.

He wasn’t sure when that had happened, if he was honest. Yes, Rukia’s words had sat in the back of his mind since she had said them while they were travelling to Karakura, but for the most part Ichigo had been able to ignore that since he had viewed Toshiro as a dangerous threat.

Ichigo supposed it was that night they spent on watch together after finally reaching Iris Valley. That was when Ichigo stopped seeing Toshiro as a threat and instead as a friend. Since then, their relationship had improved. They often spent nights on watch together, now that the group had decided to have at least one sentry while the rest slept, and Ichigo often volunteered when Toshiro did and vice versa.

He enjoyed those moments, when everyone else left them alone, when he could make Toshiro smile and chuckle at his stories and recycled dad jokes from Isshin.

During the day, they mostly stayed apart as Toshiro hung out with Rangiku or Rukia, depending on if they were travelling or training.

But Ichigo found himself wishing the day would pass so that night may fall again and he could sit with Toshiro under the moonlight and listen to him laugh hysterically at Ichigo’s complaints about Rangiku’s hugging training method.

Ichigo had learned Toshiro had a beautiful laugh, one that gave the Avatar goosebumps. He had also learned that Toshiro was possibly the most intelligent man he had met, and he had protective instincts to rival Ichigo’s own. Rangiku was his lifeline, and Isshin to a degree though he had learned to function without him in their years apart.

Toshiro had a strength and maturity Ichigo hadn’t been able to muster yet. He knew, at the end of the day, that the good of the world had to come first.

“Saying goodbye to the captain was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do,” Toshiro had murmured one night when speaking about Isshin. “He was everything to me.”

“You could have gone with him?” Ichigo pointed out, though it might have meant Ichigo had never found out where his father had been waiting for him.

“No, I couldn’t,” Toshiro grimaced. “It would have been selfish. He needed to find you, and I needed to reconnect with my powers so that I could fight when the final battle came. I could only do that Junrinan.”

It had hit Ichigo then that he didn’t think he could have done the same. In fact, he hadn’t. He had spent years running away, then years trying to find his father, and those were all years he could have been learning to bend the other elements. If he had been less selfish, he might have been capable of bending all four elements by now, he might even have been able to unlock the Avatar State. He’d be far more powerful, and far more likely to defeat Aizen.

“I couldn’t have done that,” Ichigo murmured. “You sacrificed your happiness.”

“It was awful,” Toshiro agreed, “but this world isn’t going to survive just because I’m happy. Besides, it paid off. I got my bending back, and the captain. I got to meet you.”

“Me?” Ichigo questioned, unable to stop an emerging grin. “I was an ass to you.”

“Yeah you were, “ Toshiro nudged him, and though his hand had been cold, the part of Ichigo’s arm that he had touched burned hot. “But like I said the night we met, I had hoped we’d be friends.”

Well, he had said he had ‘hoped they would get along better’ but Ichigo supposed that friends is what the Waterbender had meant.

“We are friends,” Ichigo assured him.

Toshiro nodded, a small smile on his lips before he laid back in the grass, staring up at the stars. “I know.”

Ichigo was smiling softly at the memory when he was suddenly doused in freezing cold water. He just heard Rukia’s cackle over his own gasp.

“Rukia!” he and Renji hissed together, both equally drenched.

“It wasn’t me!” Rukia exclaimed.

“Don’t pin this on me,” Toshiro chuckled and when Ichigo glanced back up he came face to face with Toshiro’s stunning smile.

The sun poked out from behind him, casting a light over his face and making the water droplets over his body glisten.

Ichigo’s retort was lost on his tongue.

He wasn’t sure which of the two of them had just dumped a wave on him and Renji, but Ichigo found himself hoping it was Toshiro, just so he knew it meant he had his attention.

Beside him, Renji was grumbling about ‘water midgets’ and squeezing the water out of his ponytail.

Rukia waded through the water, coming to the bank and capturing Renji’s face between her (no longer water tentacles) hands.

“Come on, Grumpy,” she murmured to him, smirking just a little. “Let’s go dry off.”

Renji nodded, getting to his feet and pulling Rukia up out of the water. They held hands as they wandered back up the grassy slope to their campsite.

Ichigo watched them go before he turned back to Toshiro and found the boy grinning madly back at him.

“It was you, wasn’t it?” Ichigo narrowed his eyes, voice playfully suspicious.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Toshiro shrugged, the grin only widening, before he sunk quickly under the surface of the water, easily dodging the fire Ichigo had pretended to shoot at him.

He emerged again and was still grinning.

“It was a team effort,” he explained with a chuckle. “Rukia wanted to cheer Renji up. I just wanted to annoy you.”

Attention achieved.

“Why did I think you were more mature than that?” Ichigo teased him and again Toshiro shrugged.

“You were misinformed.”

Toshiro fell backwards into the water again, this time floating on his back. For a moment it was quiet, the only sounds were birds in the trees and Rangiku’s distant laughter.

“Are you nervous about going to Hueco Mundo?” Ichigo asked casually.

“You should just assume I’m nervous wherever we go,” Toshiro laughed from the water.

Ichigo hummed. “Me too.”

They were due to travel tonight, once again needing to use the cover of nightfall now that they were heading back into enemy territory. No doubt that was why Rukia wanted to cheer up Renji, who was likely to be dreading the journey as much as Ichigo had dreaded going to his own home.

They sat in silence after that, Ichigo happy to sit on the grass and dry off under the sun, Toshiro peacefully floating about the stream. Every time they got a quiet afternoon, they had to take advantage of it.

Eventually they could smell someone cooking dinner over the fire, and the sun dipped behind the trees, leaving Ichigo damp and chilly.

“Wanna head back up?” he called out to Toshiro who sighed and nodded.

The Waterbender stood up in the stream, this time with his back to Ichigo. It was the first time he had seen Toshiro’s back, Ichigo suddenly realised, and his eyes went wide with horror.

In the middle of Toshiro’s back, there was a big, blue scar.

* * *

Ichigo hadn’t been able to stop thinking about the scar on Toshiro’s back, even as they travelled closer and closer to Hueco Mundo.

It was a distraction from the fear of heading towards the enemy hotspot, but it wasn’t a pleasant one.

Ichigo hadn’t wanted to ask, but he guessed that it was an injury sustained in the Maggots’ Nest. Isshin had once told him that he, Toshiro and Rangiku had been routinely tortured. Ichigo had assumed that to be an unspeakably terrible thing to endure, but that scar on Toshiro’s back… well, that looked severe enough to kill him.

Ichigo had been quiet through dinner, and thankfully his group knew well enough to leave him to his thoughts while he was brooding. Except that he wasn’t brooding, he was just at a loss for words, the image of Toshiro’s scar burning into Ichigo’s mind, long after he had turned around and even put on a shirt, oblivious to Ichigo’s internal reaction.

There was something about that scar, something that was different to other scars that Toshiro had, different to the ones any of them had. Something that left an unsettling feeling in Ichigo’s stomach.

Something about it spoke evil.

“You alright?” Isshin dropped back to Ichigo, voice hushed.

“Yeah,” Ichigo breathed. He didn’t want to ask Isshin about it, just in case it was from the Maggots’ Nest as Ichigo suspected. If Isshin hadn’t been unable to protect Toshiro from that, it wasn’t worth reminding him as they ventured into Hueco Mundo. They needed to keep their minds sharp.

“We’re almost there,” Isshin seemed to accept Ichigo’s answer, even if he didn’t believe it. “Stay vigilant.”

Ichigo nodded. Yes, he couldn’t focus on the past right now, when the present was so dangerous.

They continued walking in the dark, dressed in common Earth Empire attire. Along with the supplies they had taken from the Water soldiers, they had also nicked a couple of items off the clothing line of a local family. It didn’t feel good to steal clothes from them, whether they were in support of their new pretend leader, ‘King Ichimaru’, or just doing what they had to keep themselves alive, but the group didn’t have a better idea. They were going to dress like locals and pray to all the Gods that they could slip into Hueco Mundo’s inner city and find Isshin’s associates without any trouble.

They had also picked up rice hats from a market a few days ago, as something to use if they thought their faces might get recognised.

After a few hours of walking, Ichigo spotted the city lights of Hueco Mundo and he gasped. He stopped to stare for a moment.

Hueco Mundo was bigger than any city Ichigo had seen before. From his view on the hill, he could see millions of lights inside homes and other buildings. They had paved roads and busy streets.

It made Junrinan look like a humble village, and Karakura like a speck of sand on the beach.

“Wow,” Rangiku breathed as she stopped beside Ichigo.

“Let’s get this over it,” Renji sighed, sounding the least impressed by it all, as he pushed between them.

To be fair, he had seen the streets of Hueco Mundo before, and he’d lived on them.

Renji walked ahead with Isshin. They were the only two who knew where they were going, and the rest of the group was to follow closely, looking like they knew too. Renji was to do the talking if they had to speak to anyone, since he still had hints of the accent.

Entering the city was easy enough. Surprisingly so, given they had spotted a series of ‘wanted’ posters and all six of them were on it. Sharing uneasy looks, they had donned their rice hats and kept their heads down, and pushing through to the city’s gate.

Hueco Mundo had walls, not unlike the Seireitei, but the guards were more lax (meaning that they had clearly been drinking on the job, and caved the second Rangiku battered her eyelashes at them and gave them a few stolen gold coins). Through their inebriated states, nobody seemed to recognise Ichigo’s group from their posters, and they hurried through the gate without looking back.

Hueco Mundo’s streets seemed even busier inside. Ichigo felt his heart pounding as he walked through, head ducked and trying not to draw any attention their way; he hadn’t seen so many people in one place for a long time.

For years, he had been hiding in abandoned towns, caves and forests. He had avoided the populated areas, only ever venturing in when he and his friends were desperate for food or supplies. But those towns had been small - not the mega city that was Hueco Mundo.

The group walked through the streets, and Ichigo held his breath for every moment of it - but no one paid them any attention. Even patrolling soldiers didn’t give them a second glance. They looked like locals, and their hair and faces were hidden under common rice hats.

Soon enough, Isshin and Renji were leading them into a busy district, that Ichigo realised quickly was the infamous red-light district. Every second building was a bar, and every other building had dark windows and shady signage. Ichigo shuddered to think what went on behind those doors.

The streets there were loud, and full of soldiers, both of the Water Kingdom and Earth Empire, but they all out of their mind drunk.

Isshin stopped out of one particular bar, and Ichigo glanced up at the sign. ‘Bird of Paradise’ flickered in neon pink lights.

Ichigo threw his father a questioning look but Isshin just gestured silently for them to follow him inside.

Inside, Bird of Paradise was… well, Ichigo didn’t quite know the adjective.

It was busy though, obviously a popular stop for soldiers and locals alike. The music was loud, and all the furniture had ugly pink velvet upholstery. Behind the bar, a man and a woman wore pink kimonos and served brightly coloured cocktails to their patrons.

Isshin approached the bar, but it was Renji who had to speak.

“Captain Kyoraku!” Renji called out to the man behind the bar, like he had known him.

The man, who had long, curly brown hair and had to be around Isshin’s age, glanced up and did a double take when Isshin waved discretely at him.

“Oh my word!” Kyoraku beamed. “My investors!”

Investors?

“Nanao!” Kyoraku called back his younger but far sterner looking female colleague. “Make up a round of Raspberry Roses and bring them to the VIP booth out the back!”

The woman, ‘Nanao’, threw Kyoraku a tired and confused glance, but whatever she saw in Kyoraku’s face had her straightening suddenly and nodding sharply. Kyoraku turned back around, grinning widely, He stepped out from behind the bar and gestured for them to follow.

Ichigo realised he hadn’t asked too many questions about Isshin’s plan and he was starting to think maybe he should have.

Kyoraku led them out the back and down some stairs into a dark cellar. Ichigo glanced around, not feeling the least bit safe.

“Isshin,” Kyoraku sighed happily and Ichigo turned to see his father being enveloped in a hug.

“Shunsui,” Isshin chuckled. “It’s good to see you again.”

“I was beginning to worry you’d never come.”

“Hopefully it was worth the wait,” Isshin sighed, pulling out of the hug. He took a step back and threw his arm over Ichigo. “This is my son, Ichigo.”

“The Avatar,” Kyoraku’s eyes went wide before he stuck his hand out for Ichigo. Not knowing what else to do, Ichigo shook the hand and tried to smile.

“And I’ve mentioned Toshiro and Rangiku to you,” Isshin continued, his arm falling off Ichigo’s shoulders and gesturing to his ‘prison kids’ (as he often referred to them as).

“It’s a pleasure,” Kyoraku took Rangiku’s hand and kissed it, winking flirtily at her.

“And this is Renji” Isshin continued, “and Rukia Kuchiki.”

“Kuchiki,” Kyoraku repeated the name slowly, and it was clear he knew it. Whatever he felt about it, he hid it beneath a dazzling smile, and welcomed them all brightly.

Nanao arrived then, carrying a tray of bright pink drinks on a tray.

“Help yourself,” Kyoraku offered to the group. “They’re our signature cocktail.”

“Don’t mind if I do,” Rangiku reached for one quickly, ignoring the sharp look Toshiro shot her.

“We’re not really here to drink, Old Friend,” Isshin sighed and Kyoraku nodded, slipping into a nearby chair.

“I’m aware,” he smirked, “but for tonight you should relax. Besides, maybe the presence of another old friend would sway you.”

Isshin raised an eyebrow at the man, who just grinned back before he nodded over to the corner. Ichigo turned, his eyes widening at what he saw.

In the corner, a man with long white hair sat cross legged, his eyes closed and fists together. He was wearing Earth Empire clothes but there was no denying what he was; an Elder Monk.

“Jushiro is here?” Isshin sounded pleasantly surprised.

Kyoraku hummed. “He’ll be excited to see you when he gets out of his mediation.”

“He’s an Airbender?” Ichigo asked, turning back to his father, though the question was pointless: all of the Elder Monks were Airbenders.

“That’s Jushiro Ukitake,” Isshin explained. “He’s an Elder Monk from the Southern Air Temple.”

Ichigo stilled - his mother had originally been from the Southern Temple.

“My dear, dear husband,” Kyoraku murmured, his smile soft. “We finally tied the knot last year. In secret, of course.”

“Finally,” Isshin's voice was as happy as it was teasing.

“And you,” Ichigo turned towards Kyoraku. “You’re an Earthbender?”

Kyoraku hummed again, nodding.

“He’s a captain too,” Isshin explained. “Nanao is his lieutenant.”

“And niece!” Kyoraku added, poking Nanao playfully, though she looked ready to snap his finger off. “Soldiers by day, cocktail bar owners by night!”

Ichigo stared. Despite Kyoraku’s playful demeanour, they were military, in an enemy army - how the Hell did Isshin think this was a good idea? Isshin seemed to sense Ichigo’s concern and began to explain.

Apparently long ago, he had met Kyoraku and Ukitake during a Four Continents Summit, which prior to the war was when the leaders of the four continents would meet to uphold international relationships and peace (that all went out the window when Gin Ichimaru’s father betrayed the others and slaughtered old man Zangetsu, all the while Aizen was feigning innocence in the corner, perhaps Tosen too).

Isshin, like Kyoraku and Ukitake, had been there accompanying their leaders, along with many other representatives from the different continents. They had struck up a close friendship, and the bond lasted to this day.

“I ran into some trouble on my way to Karakura after escaping the Maggots’ Nest,” Isshin grimaced. “Earth Empire soldiers under Ichimaru’s control caught me and took me back to their captain. I was so relieved to find Shunsui was their commander, and overnight, he snuck me out.”

“But not without forming an alliance,” Kyoraku drawled. “I made your father promise to find me once he found you. We’d fight together against the three traitors. Until then, I would continue to play the role of an Earth Army captain, while ensuring no innocent lives were lost under my watch.”

“You know about Aizen?” Ichigo asked.

“Oh sure,” Kyoraku waved him off. “Worst kept secret in Hueco Mundo. That bloke is one banana short of a bunch, if you know what I mean.”

Ichigo’s brow furrowed at that.

“What are you planning?” Nanao spoke up, turning to Isshin.

“We’re heading to the Seireitei,” Isshin informed them. “That’s the last major city for Aizen to capture. Once he has that, the war is won.”

“He’ll be looking to kill the Avatar first, I imagine,” Kyoraku sighed before he shot Ichigo an apologetic look. “Sorry, Kid.”

“I’m afraid I’ll have to deny his request,” Isshin said stiffly. “Will you come with us?”

Kyoraku nodded, standing up again. He shook Isshin’s hand in agreement.

“I’ve been waiting years for this.” Kyoraku announced with a smirk. “Every moment you spend here is dangerous. Nanao, make the necessary preparations.”

“Yes, Sir,” Nanao bowed and disappeared back up the stairs to the bar.

“Make yourselves comfortable,” Kyoraku ordered the group. “We leave at dawn.”

* * *

“Are you angry at me?”

Ichigo glanced up from where he was sitting in his military grade sleeping bag, just having woken up. Toshiro was standing over him, arms crossed over his chest and eyes unreadable, as they often were when he didn’t want people to know how he was feeling.

The morning sun lit up his skin beautifully, distracting Ichigo to the point he hadn’t heard Toshiro’s initial greeting until he huffed and kicked Ichigo’s knee gently, demanding his answer.

“No?”

They had left Hueco Mundo early the day before. As it turned out, Kyoraku had been working on a tunnel system that led from the basement cellar of his bar, underneath Hueco Mundo and back out in a nearby forest. It reminded Ichigo of the days they spent escaping through the cave tunnels to Iris Valley, but at least no one was following them… yet.

“Nanao and I are supposed to be leading a patrol this morning,” Kyoraku grimaced. “They’ll know something is wrong when we don’t show up. Best we get a move on.”

Fortunately, Ichigo and his group managed to get out of the tunnel and start venturing through the forest by the time they had heard the bells. Nanao explained that the city’s alarm had been raised.

“They’ll be running a search of the area,” she muttered. “We need to move faster.”

Faster they did move, through the forest and to higher ground.

Nobody felt safe, yet Kyoraku and Nanao didn’t seem too worried. They just powered on, leaving Ichigo and his friends to scramble after them and pray their stamina kept up. Ichigo didn’t get a chance to talk to Ukitake either, the Elder Monk struggling with the pace the most but managing to hold on.

Eventually nightfall came again, and Kyoraku and Isshin decided they could afford a few hours’ sleep in a small clearing they had found in the forest.

Toshiro had volunteered for sentry duty, but Ichigo hadn’t joined him.

That was probably why the Waterbender was standing over him now.

“Then why are you avoiding me?” he asked, a skeptical eyebrow raised.

“I’m not,” Ichigo shrugged, looking down automatically.

Around them, their group was starting to pack up camp, too busy to pay Toshiro and Ichigo any mind.

Toshiro sighed and crouched, coming down to Ichigo’s level.

“If you don’t want to be on watch with me, that’s fine,” Toshiro spoke lowly, “but you haven’t said a word to me since before we left for Hueco Mundo and I don’t know what I’ve done.”

“You haven’t done anything,” Ichigo answered quickly. “I just- we just haven’t been near each other.”

That wasn’t true. During the walk yesterday, Toshiro had tried to talk to Ichigo. He had been asking about his upcoming Earthbending lessons with Renji and Ichigo hadn’t been very good at holding up his side of the conversation, his mind wandering to that scare again and his mouth unable to get the words out. When Toshiro had tried to tease him, Ichigo hadn’t responded, except to make a lame excuse to run off.

“Right,” Toshiro drawled, the tone indicating he wasn’t buying the excuse either.

It was then that Ichigo realised he could see something in those teal eyes - he could see insecurity. After a beat, Toshiro suddenly stood again, preparing to walk away.

Ichigo mentally kicked himself. He didn’t want Toshiro to think he was mad at him for no reason.

“How did you get that scar?” he asked, the question blurting out of him in a desperate attempt not to have the Waterbender walk away from him.

Toshiro turned around, a confused frown on his face.

“Which scar?”

“The one on your back.”

Toshiro’s chin tilted up, his frown unchanging. He didn’t answer.

“I saw it when we were at the stream,” Ichigo spoke quietly. “It’s different from your other scars.”

“Why?” Toshiro asked. Nothing in his face gave anything away.

“Why?” Ichigo repeated, confused.

“Why is it different from the other scars? A scar is a scar, Kurosaki.”

“Well it…” Ichigo found himself speechless. He didn’t know why it was different, other than how it looked of course, but that wasn’t what disturbed Ichigo the most about it. “It’s blue and-and-”

“Maggots’ Nest,” Toshiro put Ichigo out of his misery. “Standard torture. If you find it so ugly, don’t look at it.”

With that the Waterbender turned sharply and marched off, leaving Ichigo staring at his clothed back, his argument lost on his tongue.

Okay well… that was not where he had expected that to go and Ichigo was certain he’d just ruined his chances of a shared sentry duty for a while.

* * *

“Did you know Aizen?”

On the second day of their speedy escape from Hueco Mundo, Ichigo had volunteered to walk alongside Ukitake, the Elder Monk who was struggling the most with the pace. For the most part he only needed help over rocks and fallen tree branches, all of which Kyoraku seemed more than happy to carry him over - even when he didn’t seem to want the help.

Ichigo mainly helped him keep cool by providing a continuous breeze around them as they walked.

Ukitake was a sickly man, apparently suffering a chronic lung problem since childhood, but he was possibly the loveliest man Ichigo had met. He reminded him of Masaki in a lot of ways. Apparently Ukitake had known Ichigo’s mother when she was child and teenager, before she met Isshin and moved out to Karakura. He spoke kindly about her, reminiscing about her and her friends coming to watch the air shows he put on for the children.

The air shows - the illusions powerful Airbenders could make, the ones Aizen now used to fool them in battle.

Ukitake seemed to know everyone, speaking about the Airbenders and monks Ichigo had met with sharp recollection.

“Well of course, we all knew him,” Ukitake murmured as they walked. “He was the Air Lord for the whole Realm. Each temple worshipped him.”

“But did you know him personally?” Ichigo asked. “Did you know who he would become?”

Ukitake grimaced.

“I met him many times,” the Elder Monk sighed. “I would never have guessed he would turn evil. He had such an air of kindness about him. He had fooled us all, even those of us who claim to have clearer connections to the Gods. No one knew.”

Ichigo hummed sadly in agreement. That seemed to be the opinion of most.

Aizen being evil, as much as Ichigo had come to accept it, still didn’t make sense. Was he born evil or did he turn bad? If it was the latter, what had turned him?

He claimed he wanted the world under his control, and the Avatar line extinguished, but for what? For personal glory? For revenge? He had to have a reason.

“Maybe one day we’ll know why,” Ukitake continued. “For now we can only know what we do, and we can only do what is right. We must restore peace to the world.”

Ichigo grimaced before he nodded. They walked on, chewing on their thoughts.

* * *

Ichigo stared, eyes wide a large rock barreled towards him.

He had his hands out, palms forward, and stood in a low, wide stance. The rock rolled too quickly towards him, seemingly growing in size the closer it got.

“Stand your ground,” Renji called from somewhere else.

_Stand your ground, stand your ground, stand your- nope!_

At the last moment, Ichigo used his Airbending and propelled himself up and over the rock, jumping clear of its destructive path. He landed back on the ground and winced as the rock barreled into the cliffside behind him with a loud crunch.

Renji snorted. “Wimp.”

Ichigo turned back, spotting the Earthbender a conveniently safe distance away, and glared.

“How did you expect me to stop that?” Ichigo hissed. “I’ve never been able to Earthbend before!”

Renji rolled his eyes. “But it’s in you, you could have stopped that rock… or cut it in half.”

Ichigo’s glare increased tenfold, as did Renji’s smirk.

They had started Earthbending training. After days of walking, Kyoraku and Isshin had agreed that the group was likely safe again (well… as safe as they could be during wartime with bounties on all of their heads.), and they had returned to their usual camping and walking pattern, the Seireitei steadily growing closer.

Renji had started training Ichigo in Earthbending. Kyoraku had also offered to train Ichigo and the Avatar would eventually take him up on that, but for now he just wanted to learn from a friend.

That afternoon was their first session, and Renji had thought it best to throw Ichigo in the deep end. It was sink or swim by his books, and Ichigo was sinking.

“Earthbending won’t come easy to you,” Renji told him. “It’s the opposite to Airbending in every way, but what’s stopping you isn’t the physical side, it’s mental.”

“What do you mean?” Ichigo huffed. Already he felt drained, and he was yet to touch a rock.

“Airbenders are taught to avoid conflicts,” Renji explained. “Physically, you’re taught to use Airbending to dodge attacks. You’re rarely taught to attack back. Spiritually, you’re always taught to take a step back, meditate, calm down and reflect. Airbenders are taught to be pacifists.”

Ichigo nodded. That was exactly what the monks had taught him. He had learned how to use Airbending to attack on his own, and only after fleeing Karakura. He had known then he was going to need to know how to fight back if he was attacked again.

He had always wondered, if his mother had known how to fight properly, if she might have been able to hold off her murderer long enough to escape.

“Earthbending is the opposite,” Renji continued. “It’s about standing your ground, confronting your problems head on and taking risks. One day, you’re going to have to face Aizen, and you’ll need to be able to do all those things.”

Ichigo’s brow furrowed. They were good points, though he was right in saying they were in conflict with everything the Avatar had grown up learning. As much as he had strayed from some of those original values, they were still ingrained deeply in his instincts.

How had previous Avatars managed to overcome their opposites? Ichigo would have asked Old Man Zangetsu if the spirit hadn’t been annoyingly silent over the past weeks. Undoubtedly, it was going to be time for another spiritual adventure soon, as much as Ichigo was dreading it.

“How am I supposed to ignore my instincts?” Ichigo asked then, speaking his question to Zangetsu out loud.

“You find a reason to,” Renji was the one who answered him, his voice serious.

It was a simple answer, but not an easy one, and Renji sought to provide Ichigo with many reasons to ignore his instincts. Every single one of those reasons was a watermelon size rocks thrown at Ichigo’s head.

They trained over and over, for hours. Renji throwing rocks, Ichigo avoiding them. He wasn’t learning any Earthbending, but his Airbending surely got sharpened.

It wasn’t until one of Renji’s flying Earth-melons hit Ichigo squarely in the chest and slammed him backwards into the rock wall of the surrounding cliffside, that the Avatar had an epiphany.

Not the epiphany he needed right now, but an important one.

As his back hit the cliff wall, and an uneven bit of rock that was jutting out poked the center of Ichigo’s back, he realised he knew how Toshiro had gotten that scar.

“Renji!” Ichigo gasped, the wind knocked out of him. “Stop! I have to find Toshiro. I have-”

_-to duck!_

Renji was relentless, his rocks still flying at Ichigo, the Avatar rolling out of the way to avoid them.

“You want me to stop?” Renji laughed. “Make me, Ichigo!”

Gods, Renji was such an ass!

More rocks were thrown at Ichigo and again he reverted to Airbending tactics to avoid getting hit. He could feel anger brewing in him, dangerously close to blasting his best friend with fire but he held back.

“Come on, Ichigo!” Renji called, hurling three more rocks at him. “Stop one and you’re free to go!”

Ichigo jumped out of the way of the three, and used Airbending to push away the next three that followed quickly. He was backed into the cliff wall, unable to retreat further, unable to move forward. He needed to go talk to Toshiro, he had to find out the truth now!

“Stop!” Ichigo yelled and before he knew what he was doing, he had planted his foot down firmly and pushed out his palms, willing a barrier to fly up and block Renji’s merciless attacks.

And it did. A barrier wall rose from the ground, blocking the rocks Renji had just thrown. It shattered to pieces instantly, but it had served its purpose. Ichigo stared, and Renji stopped throwing rocks.

He looked satisfied.

Ichigo had managed to bend earth.

“Not bad, Rookie,” Renji smirked, his stance relaxing. “You finally stood your ground.”

“Yeah,” Ichigo breathed, staring now at his palms that had somehow conjured the earth wall. “I did.”

He had been given a reason to; desperation.

Which he hadn’t forgotten the cause of.

“I need to speak to Toshiro,” Ichigo announced again, stalking off.

“Go see your boyfriend!” Renji called after him, dismissing him though Ichigo had already left. “We’ll pick this back up tomorrow!”

Ichigo ignored him, hurrying back through the narrow forest to the campsite. Somewhere along the way, the group had found the coastline again. It reminded Ichigo of Junrinan, but here the beach was sand. It made for more comfortable sleeping anyway, and they had a surrounding treeline and high cliffs for cover. He found Rukia first, practicing her Waterbending solo in the shallow water, and he asked her if she knew where Toshiro was. She redirected him further up the beach, so Ichigo took off in that direction.

He passed Rangiku, Isshin and Kyoraku lounging around the fire, laughing hysterically at something. They were drinking, since Kyoraku had thought it necessary to bring rice wine for the trip. Nanao was glaring at everyone from where she sat against a tree, taking up the afternoon sentry shift.

Ichigo also passed Ukitake, who was once again mediating. He sat cross-legged on the sand, his long white hair blowing in the gentle sea breeze. Ichigo felt himself calm a little passing the Elder Monk, who looked to be so at peace it was hard to believe they were currently living through a decade-long war.

He eventually found Toshiro, far up the beach where the wind was a little stronger. He was practicing his sword fighting, but the way he moved, with such grace and fluidity, he looked like he was dancing. The sword was just an extension of his arm, it moved as if a part of him. He held it lightly, but every move he practiced was designed to kill.

Ichigo stood in front of him, watching for a moment. Toshiro had clocked his approach, but continued without stopping.

They hadn’t spoken since the other day, when Toshiro had confronted him and later stormed off.

“I know how you got that scar,” Ichigo called over the wind.

Toshiro’s movements stuttered, just briefly, before he continued on with no verbal response. He wasn’t going to allude to anything.

“Gin Ichimaru stabbed you in the back,” Ichigo answered anyway. “You survived it so he sent you to prison with your au pair.”

Toshiro’s sword sliced through the air, gracefully as ever, as he ignored Ichigo’s accusation.

But it wasn’t an accusation, it wasn’t a guess or an opinion, it wasn’t even an assumption. As Ichigo spoke the words aloud, he realised that on some level, he had always known the truth. It had sat in the back of his mind, gnawing away in the form of distrust and suspicion. He had never consciously connected the dots, but now that he had, it seemed almost obvious.

“Everybody thinks you’re dead, but you’re not,” Ichigo breathed. He remembered hearing the rumours on the streets, and reading it in the newspapers.

Gin Ichimaru, previously the Crown Prince to the Water Kingdom, had taken the throne after killing his only two living family members; his father, the Water King, and-

“You’re Gin Ichimaru’s brother,” Ichigo murmured, the words tasting of ash in his mouth. “You’re the Water Prince.”

Toshiro’s sword dropped his side, his back rigid. Ichigo wanted to see those teal eyes, but Toshiro did not turn around. For a moment, he was lifeless - a statue. For a moment, the waves ceased to crash on the beach. For a moment, the world stopped spinning.

“Not anymore.”

Two words, uttered in a whisper that barely carried over the wind, were filled with more anguish than Ichigo had ever heard.

Finally, Toshiro moved again. His sword swinging around him like nothing had happened.

**Author's Note:**

> Please kudos and comment if you’re enjoying this fic <3
> 
> If you would like to join our Bleach fandom community Discord server (The Seireitei), use the joining code: https://discord.gg/Zh8N2Ra 
> 
> Also, if you would like to follow my progress with current fics or see what I’ve got coming up in future, check out my Trello board! You can find it here: https://trello.com/b/TTqjniOD
> 
> You can also find me on Tumblr with the same username (Geishaaa)! x


End file.
